[UPDATE: Wednesday night’s double launch from the Space Coast sadly hasn’t worked out. ULA postponed liftoff during the launch window period due to an issue that emerged while cycling the booster liquid oxygen tank vent valve during final checkouts. ULA is still troubleshooting the issue, but all being well, it will try again in 24 hours, that is, on Thursday at 10:16 p.m ET. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched as planned.]
Lots of spaceflight fans have descended on Florida’s Space Coast tonight to witness the rare sight of two rockets launching within a couple of hours of each other. But if you’re not there, you can still watch livestreams of the launches — more details below.
The first mission is a SpaceX flight involving a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a batch of 29 Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit.
The rocket is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 8:31 p.m. ET.
As usual, the first stage of the Falcon 9 — this particular one on its fifth flight — will return and land upright on a droneship waiting just off the coast of Florida. A perfect landing will allow it to be used for a sixth mission.
You can watch the launch and landing via the video player below, or by visiting SpaceX’s X account.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 29 @Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida https://t.co/3OYJOgle82
A couple of hours after the SpaceX launch, at 10:24 p.m. ET, ULA is planning to launch an Atlas V rocket carrying the ViaSat-3 F2 communications satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit for Viasat, a California-based communications company. The hefty 6-metric-ton satellite will be deployed about three-and-a-half hours after liftoff.
At liftoff, the Atlas V will produces 2.7 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and five solid rocket boosters. That’s significantly more power than SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which generates 1.7 million pounds of thrust, though nowhere near as much as SpaceX’s Starship, which generates a record-breaking 17 million pounds of thrust as it blasts off.
The Atlas V rocket debuted in 2002 and this latest mission will mark its 105th flight. You can watch a livestream of the launch via the player embedded below:
The Space Coast weather is looking good for Wednesday evening, so both launches are expected to offer good viewing opportunities for those there in person. And for everyone watching online, too!
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.