SpaceX is set to launch another batch of its Starlink Internet satellites from Florida today (May 22), the company’s second mission in less than 24 hours.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight at 10:35 pm EDT (May 23 at 0235 GMT) during a four-hour window.
SpaceX will webcast the launch live through its X account, starting five minutes before the window opens.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth 8 minutes after launch, if all goes according to plan; It will touch the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Step one is the eighth launch and landing for this particular first phase SpaceX mission description. Its seven previous liftoffs include three Starlink missions and the Ax-2 and Ax-3 private space missions to the International Space Station.
Meanwhile, Falcon 9’s upper stage will carry 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), deploying them there 65 minutes after liftoff.
Tonight will be SpaceX’s second day of liftoff. Early this morning, the company launched mission NROL-146 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, sending a set of satellites to the US National Reconnaissance Office.
This will be SpaceX’s 52nd orbital launch of the year. Thirty-six of those missions were dedicated to building the massive and ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation, which currently exists About 5,950 satellites are in operation.
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