SpaceX could give us a double launch on Wednesday night (December 13).
The company aims to launch another 23 Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, during a roughly four-hour window that opens at 11:07 p.m. EDT (0407 GMT on December 14). . You can watch it live via SpaceX’s X account (formerly Twitter), starting about five minutes before the window opens.
SpaceX could have another mission on its docket on Wednesday as well: The Falcon Heavy could launch the US Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which is located next to Cape Canaveral, the same night.
The X-37B and Starlink launch were originally scheduled for Monday night (December 11), but SpaceX backed out of both. The company cited a ground issue related to Falcon Heavy scrub and high winds at ground level for delaying Starlink after the launch attempt on Tuesday.
Related: Starlink Space Train: How to See and Track It in the Night Sky
If all goes according to plan on Wednesday’s Starlink mission, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth for a vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after launch. It will land on the “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
This will be the third launch and landing of this particular booster, according to SpaceX Task description. The other two missions were Crew-7 and CRS-29, which sent astronauts and cargo, respectively, to the International Space Station for NASA.
Meanwhile, the 23 Starlink satellites are scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage into low Earth orbit about 65.5 minutes after liftoff.
Starlink is SpaceX’s massive internet constellation, which currently consists of More than 5,000 operational spacecraft.
The massive network has grown dramatically over the past year. SpaceX has launched more than 90 orbital missions in 2023 so far, most of which are dedicated to building the Starlink constellation.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated twice; First at 8:40 PM ET on December 11 with news of X-37B and Starlink launch delays, then at 12:45 AM ET on December 13 with news of Starlink being rubbed by the wind.
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