SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites on Wednesday evening (Feb. 8), weather permitting.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday no earlier than 8:17 p.m. EST (5:17 p.m. local California time or 0117 GMT on Feb. 8).
SpaceX will livestream the launch via its account on X. Coverage will begin about five minutes before the window opens.
SpaceX had originally planned the launch for early Wednesday morning (EST) but stood down with just seconds left in the countdown due to unfavorable weather.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff for a landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
It will be the 14th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Seven of its 13 previous flights were Starlink missions.
Starlink is SpaceX’s broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit, which currently consists of nearly 5,400 operational spacecraft. That number is growing all the time, as Wednesday evening’s planned liftoff shows.
This Starlink launch will be the 11th orbital mission of the year for SpaceX. And there will be many more to come; the company aims to launch 144 missions in 2024.
