SpaceX to launch its 80th orbital mission of the year tonight
source : www.space.com
There will be another SpaceX launch tonight (November 7), if all goes according to plan.
A Falcon 9 rocket will send another 23 of SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight at 11:01 EST (0401 GMT on November 8). If SpaceX can’t reach that window, seven backup options will be available between 11:23 PM EST and 3:00 AM EST (0423 to 0800 GMT), according to a SpaceX mission description.
You can watch the action live via SpaceX’s account on X (formerly known as Twitter). Coverage begins approximately five minutes before takeoff.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
The Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after launch for a landing attempt on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to the mission description, it will be the eleventh launch and landing of the first stage of this rocket.
The 23 Starlink satellites, meanwhile, will deploy into low Earth orbit just under 65 minutes after launch from the Falcon 9 upper stage.
Tonight’s mission will be SpaceX’s 80th orbital launch of 2023. The majority of those flights have been spent building out the Starlink mega-constellation, which beams internet service to customers around the world.
According to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, there are currently more than 5,000 operational Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit.
source : www.space.com
