Update for May 20th: SpaceX will launch 21 satellites for OneWeb and Iridium today, Saturday, May 20, 9:16 am. EDT (1316 GMT) and you can watch it live on this free live stream. The mission will launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
An attempt to launch the mission on Friday was aborted 55 seconds before launch. Our preview story is below.
SpaceX plans to launch its second mission in two days on Saturday morning (May 20), and you can follow the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 satellites for the Iridium and OneWeb companies is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:16 a.m. EDT (1316 GMT; 6:16 a.m. California time) on Friday.
Watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or through the company directly. Coverage is expected to begin approximately 15 minutes before launch. An attempt to launch the mission on Friday was aborted 55 seconds before launch.
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(Image credit: SpaceX)
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth about nine minutes after launch. It will land on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You drone ship, which will be based in the Pacific.
It will be the 11th launch and landing for this particular booster, SpaceX said in a mission briefing.
The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue to deliver the satellites – five from Iridium and the other 16 from OneWeb – into low Earth orbit. The deployment is scheduled for about 30 minutes, beginning about an hour after launch.
Fifteen of the OneWeb satellites will continue to expand the company’s broadband constellation in low-Earth orbit. The 16th is a technology demonstrator called JoeySat.
“JoeySat contains several new technologies, including a digitally regenerative payload and the demonstration of electronically steered multi-beam phased array antennas,” OneWeb wrote in a mission statement.
SpaceX has already launched three batches of OneWeb internet satellites, sending 40 spacecraft into the skies on each of those previous missions.
The five Iridium satellites are replacement satellites that will add support to the company’s 66 currently operational telecommunications satellites. (Iridium already has nine spare satellites in orbit.)
“Our constellation is incredibly healthy; however, the spare satellites are of no use to us on the ground,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch said in a September 2022 statement when that SpaceX launch was announced.
“We have built additional satellites as an insurance policy and given SpaceX’s outstanding track record, we look forward to another successful launch that will further position us to achieve the longevity of our first constellation,” he added.
This launch will be the second in quick succession for SpaceX. The company also launched 22 of its own Starlink “V2 mini” internet satellites from the Florida Space Coast at 2:19 a.m. EDT (0619 GMT) Friday.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @spacedotcomor on Facebook and Instagram.