SpaceX plans to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast tonight (Nov. 26).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday at 10:05 p.m. EST (0308 GMT on Wed Nov. 27). Backup opportunities are available until 1:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Nov. 27 (0630 GMT).
SpaceX will webcast the action 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 liftoff, touching down on the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the 15th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Ten of its 14 flights to date have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will carry the 24 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there about 65 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has launched 116 Falcon 9 missions so far in 2024, and 80 of them have been devoted to building out the Starlink network. Four of those Starlink flights have occurred in the past seven days.
The Starlink megaconstellation — the biggest ever assembled — currently consists of nearly 6,700 active spacecraft, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.
