This morning, October 29, SpaceX is scheduled to launch a second set of its Starlink internet satellites from California.
Today, at 7:44 a.m. EDT (1144 GMT; 4:44 a.m. local California time), a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell (DTC) capabilities, is set to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The window is over an hour long.
Starting approximately five minutes prior to liftoff, SpaceX will broadcast the launch live on X.
About eight minutes after liftoff, assuming everything goes as planned, the first stage of the Falcon 9 will return to Earth. The drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which will be based in the Pacific Ocean, will receive its landing.
According to a SpaceX mission description, it will be the booster’s 14th launch and landing and its 11th Starlink flight overall.
The Starlink satellites will be launched around one hour after liftoff, after being transported to low Earth orbit (LEO) by the upper stage of the Falcon 9.
Approximately two-thirds of SpaceX’s more than 100 Falcon 9 flights launched so far in 2024 have been focused on expanding the Starlink megaconstellation.
Jonathan McDowell, a satellite tracker and astrophysicist, says the corporation currently has over 6,400 Starlink spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Of them, about 250 are DTC satellites.
