SpaceX launching 20 Starlink satellites from California tonight (Image Credit: Space.com)
SpaceX is set to launch 20 Starlink internet satellites from California tonight (May 9), including 13 with direct-to-cell capability.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink craft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight, during a two-hour window that opens at 11:20 p.m. EDT (8:20 p.m. local California time; 0320 GMT on May 10). SpaceX had originally planned to launch the mission on Wednesday night (May 8) but stood down from that attempt.
SpaceX will livestream the launch via its X account, beginning about five minutes before the window opens.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
The Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth about 8 minutes after launch, if all goes according to plan. It will touch down on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
It will be the 4th launch and landing for this particular first stage, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), where they will be deployed about 61.5 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX just launched a Starlink mission on Wednesday, sending 23 of the satellites to LEO from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Back-to-back launches are far from a novelty for SpaceX these days. On March 30, for example, the company launched two missions — a Starlink batch and the Eutelsat 36D telecommunications satellite — less than four hours apart, both of them from Florida’s Space Coast.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:30 a.m. ET on May 9 with news of the new target launch date of May 9.
