Update for 12:20 p.m. ET on Feb. 27: SpaceX has delayed the Starlink launch from Vandenberg to no earlier than Tuesday (Feb. 28) and pushed the Florida liftoff to 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT) tonight (Feb. 27).
SpaceX plans to launch the first of a new generation of Starlink internet satellites tonight and you can watch it live online for free.
Twenty-one of SpaceX’s new Starlink “V2 mini” satellites are scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT) today, Feb. 27, about five hours later than original planned, according to a SpaceX update. The launch was originally one of two planned for within two hours today (a second Falcon 9 was set to launch an older version of Starlink from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base this afternoon, but that flight was delayed due to bad weather.
You can watch missions live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab).
Related: 10 weird things about SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites
As usual, the Falcon 9 first stages will come back to Earth to make landing attempts roughly 8.5 minutes after each launch. This will be the third and 12th launches, respectively, for the boosters flying at today and eventually on the Vandenberg Falcon 9 launch, according to Everyday Astronaut (opens in new tab).
SpaceX has already launched nearly 4,000 Starlink satellites (opens in new tab) for internet service around the world, and more satellites are coming: The company has regulatory permission to send up 12,000 Starlink craft and has applied for approval to deploy nearly 30,000 satellites on top of that.
In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved SpaceX to deploy 7,500 Starlink 2.0 satellites in low Earth orbit — far fewer than the 29,988 Starlink 2.0s that SpaceX had applied for in 2020. The FCC granted a limited approval “to address concerns about orbital debris and space safety,” agency officials said at the time.
“Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen2 Starlink, which will bring next-generation satellite broadband to Americans nationwide, including those living and working in areas traditionally unserved or underserved by terrestrial systems,” FCC officials wrote in the December decision order, which you can find here (opens in new tab). “Our action also will enable worldwide satellite broadband service, helping to close the digital divide on a global scale.”
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The 21 V2 mini Starlink satellites scheduled to launch Monday are a test set for SpaceX’s Falcon 9; the full-size version 2.0 spacecraft is optimized for SpaceX’s huge Starship Mars rocket, which is not yet operational.
The full-size Starlink 2.0 satellites are larger and can do more than predecessor Starlink generations, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. Each 2.0 spacecraft is 1.25 tons (1,130 kilograms) and can send service directly to cellphones; SpaceX has already announced intentions to do so in 2023 via a partnership with T-Mobile.
The two Starlink launches originally planned for Monday were supposed to be part of a triple-header, along with the Crew-6 astronaut mission for NASA, which was scheduled to lift off early Monday morning. But Crew-6’s planned liftoff was scrubbed due to a ground-system issue late in the countdown.
The next possible Crew-6 launch opportunity is Thursday (March 2) at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT).
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2 p.m. EST to reflect SpaceX’s launch time changes for its two Starlink missions and Crew-6 astronaut flight.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
