Watch SpaceX launch 22 Starlink satellites to orbit tonight
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SpaceX plans to launch 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit tonight (Sept. 8), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight (Sept. 8) at 7:56 p.m. EDT (2356 GMT).
Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 52 Starlink satellites to orbit on March 17, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth for a landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff tonight, if all goes according to plan. It will touch down on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the seventh launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The 22 Starlink satellites are scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9’s upper stage about 65 minutes after launch.
Tonight’s launch will be the 63rd of 2023 for SpaceX, extending the company’s record for a single year. The previous mark, 61, was set in 2022.
More than half of this year’s liftoffs have been dedicated to building out Starlink, SpaceX’s internet megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 4,600 operational satellites.