The SpaceX launches just keep on coming.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch 23 more of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (May 23), during a 3.5-hour window that opens at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT). It will be the third mission in the past two days for the company.
SpaceX will webcast the launch live via X, starting 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 make a powered, vertical touchdown on the droneship “Just Read the Instructions,” which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the 13th launch and landing for this particular first stage, according to a SpaceX mission description. Half of its 12 flights to date have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will carry the 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) tonight, deploying them about 65 minutes after liftoff.
Tonight’s action comes on the heels of a SpaceX doubleheader. On Wednesday (May 22), the company launched the NROL-146 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from California and a batch of Starlink satellites from Florida’s Space Coast.
SpaceX has now launched 52 orbital missions this year, 36 of which have been dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation.
