The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch on its record 16th mission on Saturday night (July 15), and you can watch the action live.
a Falcon 9 It is topped by 54 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites and is scheduled to lift off from the Space Force’s Cape Canaveral Station in Florida on Saturday in 11:50 PM EDT (0350 GMT on July 16). The company said in a live webcast that SpaceX attempted to launch the mission early Friday, but had to abort it at the last minute.
You can view it here on SpaceX.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before launch.
Related: SpaceX’s massive Starlink satellite is being launched in pictures
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth for a vertical descent about 8.5 minutes after launch aboard a SpaceX A Shortfall of Gravitas drone.
This will be the 16th launch and landing of this booster, according to A SpaceX mission description. This will equal the record set last Sunday (July 9) by a different Falcon 9 first stage flying on another Starlink mission.
The Falcon 9 upper stage, which cannot be reused, will continue to pull Starlink’s 54 satellites into low Earth orbit, eventually deploying them about 66 minutes after liftoff.
The Starlink launch is part of a busy few days in spaceflight. On Friday morning (July 14), for example, India launched its Chandrayaan 3 robotic mission, which aims to begin the country’s first soft landing on the moon next month.
And on Sunday evening (July 16), the Rocket Lab Electron launcher will send seven small satellites skyward from the company’s site in New Zealand. Rocket Lab is working on making the Electron first stage reusable, and Sunday’s mission, called “Baby Come Back,” includes the planned recovery of the booster from the Pacific Ocean.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:10 PM ET on July 14th with the new launch time of 11:50 PM ET on July 15th.
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