SpaceX will launch its a centesimal mission of the yr in the present day (Aug. 7), and you may watch the motion stay.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper web satellites is scheduled to elevate off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in the present day, throughout a 27-minute window that opens at 10:01 a.m. EDT (1401 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the launch stay via its website and X account, starting about quarter-hour earlier than liftoff.
Today’s launch would be the 97th Falcon 9 liftoff of the yr already and SpaceX’s a centesimal mission of 2025 general. The different three have been suborbital check flights of Starship, the large, reusable car that the corporate is creating to assist humanity settle Mars.
SpaceX additionally operates a 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which hasn’t flown since October 2024, when it despatched NASA’s Europa Clipper probe towards the Jupiter system.
If SpaceX maintains its present tempo, it’ll launch about 165 instances this yr. That would break the corporate’s single-year report of 138, which it set in 2024. (Last yr’s breakdown: 132 Falcon 9 liftoffs, two Falcon Heavy launches and 4 Starship check flights.)
More than 70% of this yr’s Falcon 9 launches have been devoted to constructing out Starlink, SpaceX’s broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO). Starlink presently consists of more than 8,100 operational satellites, and it is rising on a regular basis.
Project Kuiper, Amazon’s model of Starlink, remains to be within the early buildout stage. Today’s launch might be simply the fourth Kuiper liftoff so far and can carry the variety of satellites within the new constellation to 102.
Kuiper will finally include over 3,200 spacecraft, which might be lofted on greater than 80 launches over the subsequent few years. Quite a lot of rockets will do that work; along with the Falcon 9, Amazon has enlisted Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.
If all goes to plan in the present day, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down within the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”
It would be the debut flight for this specific booster, in response to a SpaceX mission description. That’s fairly uncommon, as the corporate is understood for its rocket reuse; its most-flown Falcon 9 has 29 flights beneath its belt.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, will proceed carrying the 24 Project Kuiper satellites to LEO. They’ll be deployed over a 7.5-minute span starting about 56 minutes after liftoff, if all goes to plan.