SpaceX launches 49 Starlink satellites, rocket landing Sunday: Live view
SpaceX will launch more than four dozen satellites and land their rockets back on Monday (February 21) and you can watch the action live.
A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with 49 rockets by SpaceX Starlink The broadband spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday at 9:44 a.m. EST (1444 GMT). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company. The SpaceX webcast will begin approximately 15 minutes before launch.
Launch plan includes rocket landing: About nine minutes after takeoff, Falcon 9’s The first leg will return to Earth for a vertical landing aboard SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas drone, which will be stationed in the Atlantic a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida.
SpaceX originally planned to launch the mission on Sunday, but postponed a day due to bad weather for that rocket recall. “Due to recovering weather, currently targeting Monday, Feb. 21 at 9:44 a.m. EST for Starlink launch,” SpaceX wrote on Twitter Saturday.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite launch in pictures
Monday will be the 11th launch and landing of this particular Falcon 9 first leg, according to EverydayAstronaut.com. That would tie SpaceX’s reuse record, set by another Falcon 9 core during the Starlink launch in December.
SpaceX has launched three major companies Starlink waves this year – two in January and one on February 3. However, the most recent mission has suffered serious problems, due to a solar eruption, causing a geomagnetic storm over Earth soil.
That storm increased the density of the atmosphere, boosting drag on the newly launched Starlink satellites. As a result, 40 out of 49 spacecrafts has returned to EarthSpaceX representative said.
SpaceX has already launched about 2,100 Starlink satellites into orbit, but the company is far from done. SpaceX has approved to launch 12,000 Starlink craft and has applied for permission from international regulators for an additional 30,000.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow them on Twitter @Spacedotcom or above Facebook.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-launch-4-8-rocket-landing SpaceX launches 49 Starlink satellites, rocket landing Sunday: Live view
