SpaceX plans to send yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit tonight (Oct. 18).
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 20 Starlink craft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 7:31 p.m. EDT (2331 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the launch live via X (formerly Twitter), beginning about five minutes before liftoff.
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, landing on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the 17th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue hauling the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there about 64 minutes after liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
The new batch will join the huge and ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 6,400 active spacecraft, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. About 230 of those satellites are direct-to-cell craft.
SpaceX has launched 96 Falcon 9 missions so far in 2024, two-thirds of them dedicated to building out the Starlink network. The company has also launched two Falcon Heavy missions and three test flights of its Starship megarocket this year.
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