Update for 2:50 pm ET: SpaceX has postponed the launch of its next Starlink mission to no earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 18, due to weather issues. See our updated story below.
A SpaceX rocket will launch a new fleet of the company’s Starlink internet satellites into orbit Tuesday night (Jan. 18) and you can watch it live online.
In what will be SpaceX’s third flight of 2022, the company is set to loft 49 Starlink satellites into space on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:04 p.m. EST (0004 Jan. 19 GMT).
The launch was originally scheduled for Monday night, but SpaceX postponed it by 24 hours due to weather conditions at the launch site and the Falcon 9 booster’s drone ship landing site in the Atlantic Ocean.
“With more favorable weather conditions for liftoff and booster recovery, now targeting Tuesday, January 18 at 7:04 p.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of Starlink satellites,” SpaceX wrote in a Twitter update Monday afternoon. Current weather forecasts from the U.S. Space Force predict a 95% chance of good weather at launch time for SpaceX’s Starlink flight Tuesday, with high winds at liftoff the only concern.
You’ll be able to watch the launch here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 15 minutes before launch. You can also watch it directly from SpaceX’s website and on YouTube.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos
Tuesday’s launch will mark SpaceX’s second Starlink mission of 2022 following the Jan. 6 launch of 49 other satellites from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A second SpaceX mission, called Transporter-3, launched 105 small satellites into orbit on Jan. 13 from a nearby pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but did not carry any Starlink satellites.
The upcoming launch will be the 36th dedicated Starlink mission for SpaceX, which has launched nearly 2,000 of the broadband internet satellites since 2019. Since that first flight, SpaceX has been steadily growing its Starlink megaconstellation to provide fast, reliable internet service anywhere on Earth, especially in remote and underserved regions. The initial constellation is expected to number about 4,400 satellites.
In 2021, SpaceX redesigned its Starlink satellites to include laser communications so they could better communicate with each other without using ground relays. The Starlink satellites equipped with those laser systems will soon activate them, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in a Twitter update Saturday (Jan. 15).
Musk also added that 1,469 of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are currently active, with 272 of them moving into operational orbits between 335 and 348 miles (540 and 560 kilometers) above Earth.
The Falcon 9 rocket launching Tuesday’s Starlink mission has flown nine times before. It has launched six different Starlink missions, as well as the GPS III-3 satellite for the U.S. military, the Turksat 5A satellite for Turkey and the Transporter 2 rideshare mission, which launched 85 small satellites and three Starlink satellites.
The two payload fairings that make up the Falcon 9’s nosecone have also flown before on Starlink missions. After launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth to land on SpaceX’s drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean so that it can be refurbished for a future flight. SpaceX regularly reuses Falcon 9 boosters and fairings as part of its reusability program to reduce the cost of its missions.
Editor’s note: This story was update at 2:50 p.m. EST to include the new Tuesday, Jan. 18, launch date and time for SpaceX’s next Starlink mission.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
