SpaceX will launch a new batch of its Starlink satellites into orbit on Thursday (September 5) after a one-day weather-related delay. You can watch it live online. In fact, it’s the first of two SpaceX launches today.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry 21 Starlink internet satellites into space from the launch pad at the company’s Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch is now scheduled for 11:33 a.m. EDT (3:33 p.m. GMT). You can watch it live on SpaceX’s X-account (formerly Twitter), begins about five minutes before liftoff. A second Falcon 9 rocket will launch late tonight from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to deliver a classified NROL-113 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office into orbit. That mission will launch at 11:20 p.m. EDT (9:20 p.m. PT/0320 Sept. 6 GMT) and will also be streamed live on X.
SpaceX originally planned to launch the Starlink 8-11 mission, as the company is calling it, on Sept. 4, but delayed it by 24 hours due to “adverse weather conditions for booster recovery in the Atlantic Ocean.” On Thursday, the company pushed the launch date back another three hours. The new Starlink satellites include 13 units with “direct to cell” capabilities, SpaceX said in a mission description. The company has a backup launch window on Thursday at 12:31 p.m. EDT (4:31 p.m. GMT).
SpaceX’s Starlink mission 8-11 will fly on a veteran Falcon 9 first-stage rocket, which will complete its 15th flight on Thursday. The rocket is expected to return to Earth just over eight minutes after liftoff, landing on SpaceX’s drone ship Just Read The Instructions nearby in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Falcon 9 rocket previously launched eight Starlink missions, NASA’s Crew-5 astronaut flight in March 2023, a Northrop Grumman NG-20 Cygnus cargo mission and a Dragon resupply flight for NASA, two commercial satellite missions and a Space Force GPS III flight.
The Falcon 9 rocket launching the NROL-113 payload is an even more seasoned veteran. It will make its 20th flight after successfully launching 14 Starlink missions, a series of commercial satellite flights and science flights for NASA, including the agency’s DART asteroid-crash mission and the Sentinel-6 ocean-observing satellite, Michael Freilich said in a mission summary.
Thursday’s launches will be the third Starlink mission and fourth overall in a week as SpaceX continues to build out its space-based mega-constellation to provide high-speed internet access around the globe and conduct customer flights. The company launched two Starlink missions, each carrying 21 satellites, within just over an hour of each other on Saturday (Aug. 31). Like today’s flight, each of those earlier missions included 13 direct-to-cell satellites, which can deliver internet service directly to cellphones.
All four Starlink missions come less than a week after a Falcon 9 rocket failed to land at sea on Aug. 28. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation into that incident is ongoing, but SpaceX has been granted launch clearance for the duration of the mission, FAA officials said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:00 a.m. ET on Sept. 5 to reflect SpaceX’s new launch time for Starlink 8-11 and the second launch for NROL-113.
