SpaceX plans to launch 22 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit tonight (October 4) on the company’s 70th orbital mission of the year.
The Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 10:45 p.m. ET.
You can watch the action live SpaceX account for X (Formerly known as Twitter). The interview is scheduled to begin approximately five minutes before the launch.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
If all goes to plan, Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff for a vertical landing at sea aboard a SpaceX drone ship.
Officials said this first stage will be the Falcon 9’s eighth takeoff and landing. SpaceX mission description. Four of the past seven launches have launched batches of Starlink.
Meanwhile, 22 Starlink satellites are scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9 upper stage into low Earth orbit (LEO) about 65 minutes after liftoff.
Tonight’s flight will be SpaceX’s 70th orbital mission in 2023. The majority of these launches have been dedicated to building the Starlink mega-constellation. Over 4,800 operational satellites.
The Falcon 9 rocket will fly 66 of SpaceX’s orbital missions this year, with the company’s powerful Falcon Heavy responsible for the remaining three. However, the latter number is about to increase. Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission on October 12th.
SpaceX also began test flights of its new deep space transportation system, Starship, this year. The mission, which was not intended to send a payload into orbit, ended four minutes after liftoff due to problems with Starship.
