Early on Wednesday morning (February 7), SpaceX intends to launch a second batch of its Starlink broadband satellites.
On Wednesday, at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT; 9:01 p.m. local California time on February 6), a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is planned to blast off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The launch window lasts for 37 minutes.
SpaceX’s X account will broadcast the launch live. About five minutes prior to the window opening, coverage will start.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 will return to Earth approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff if all goes as planned, landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be based in the Pacific Ocean.
As per the SpaceX mission description, this will be the booster’s 14th launch and landing. Starlink missions accounted for seven of its thirteen prior flights.
Starlink is a low-Earth orbit broadband megaconstellation operated by SpaceX, with around 5,400 operating satellites as of right now. As the scheduled liftoff on Wednesday morning demonstrates, that number is constantly increasing.
SpaceX will be launching Starlink on its eleventh orbital mission of the year. And there are going to be a lot more; by 2024, the corporation wants to have launched 144 missions.
