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SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink satellites from Florida on Aug. 11

SpaceX intends to launch 23 more of its Starlink broadband satellites on Sunday (Aug. 11), as part of a planned spaceflight doubleheader for the company.

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the 23 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, during a 3.5-hour window that opens at 7:21 a.m. EDT (1121 GMT).

SpaceX will webcast the action live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before launch.

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight minutes after launch, touching down on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It will be the 17th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to SpaceX.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will deploy the 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit about 64 minutes after launch.

Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

Sunday morning’s launch is part of a busy weekend for SpaceX. The company launched 21 Starlink satelllites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC, on Saturday morning (Aug. 10).

And another Falcon 9 will lift off tonight from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, carrying two satellites aloft on the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission. The ASBM is designed to provide coverage in the Arctic for the U.S. Space Force and the state-owned company Space Norway.

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