SpaceX launching 22 Starlink satellites from Florida tonight

8 Jun 2024
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 Starlink satellites from Florida on June 4, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX plans to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites tonight (June 7).

SpaceX - Figure 1
Photo Space.com

The Starlink satellites will lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight, during a 130-minute window that opens at 8:00 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT on June 8). 

SpaceX will webcast the launch live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before liftoff.

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, if all goes according to plan. It will land vertically on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. 

It will be the 16th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Among its 15 flights to date are 11 Starlink missions.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. They're scheduled to be deployed 52.5 minutes after liftoff.

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Tonight's launch will be the 59th orbital mission of the year for SpaceX already. Forty-one of the company's 58 launches in 2024 have been dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 6,000 functional satellites.

The above tally does not count launches of SpaceX's Starship megarocket, which has lifted off on two test flights so far this year. The most recent one occurred yesterday (June 6) and was a rousing success, as both stages of the huge vehicle splashed down in their planned ocean landing zones.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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