SpaceX is set to launch 23 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida tonight (March 10).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a 3.25-hour window that opens at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the launch live via its X account; coverage will begin about five minutes before the window opens.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It will make a vertical landing on the SpaceX droneship Just Read the Instructions, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the 11th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Four of its 10 flights to date have been Starlink missions.
The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue powering its way upward, eventually deploying the Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit about 65 minutes after launch.
RELATED STORIES:
This will be the first of two Starlink launches tonight, if all goes to plan. SpaceX aims to launch another batch of the broadband satellites from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:13 p.m. EDT (0213 GMT on March 11).
SpaceX has launched 22 orbital missions already this year, but many more are in the offing: The company intends to launch 144 times in 2024.
