SpaceX is preparing to send another group of its Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Tuesday morning (Jan. 21), just five days following a trial flight of the company’s Starship megarocket that concluded with an explosion.
A Falcon 9 rocket, which will carry 21 Starlink satellites, is planned to take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, within a nearly four-hour timeframe that begins at 12:24 a.m. EST (0524 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the event live on its X account, commencing roughly five minutes prior to launch.
The initial stage of the Falcon 9 will return to Earth approximately eight minutes after liftoff, landing in the Atlantic Ocean on the drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”
This marks the eighth launch and successful landing for this specific booster, based on a SpaceX mission description. Out of its seven flights so far, three have been Starlink missions.
Conversely, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 will transport the 21 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, deploying them approximately 65 minutes post-liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellite trail: how to view and monitor it in the night sky
The launch scheduled for Tuesday morning will be the ninth Falcon 9 mission of 2025, and SpaceX’s 10th launch of the year overall. The remaining mission was the seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, which occurred on Thursday (Jan. 16) in South Texas.
This flight presented a mixed outcome for the company. The enormous first-stage Super Heavy booster of Starship returned to its launch site for a dramatic catch by the tower’s “chopstick” arms, but the upper stage of the vehicle exploded only 8.5 minutes after takeoff, seemingly following a propellant leak.