Jenam 2011SpaceX is aiming to pull off a remarkable hat trick early on Sunday (June 19), and you can watch the action live.
One step in two stages Falcon 9 The rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday at 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427 GMT), carrying a communications satellite for Louisiana-based company Globalstar into orbit.
If all goes as planned, approximately nine minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first stage will return to Earth for a vertical landing on the SpaceX droneship Just Read The Instructions, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. You can watch it all live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company (opens in a new tab). Coverage should begin approximately 10 minutes before takeoff.
Related: The 20 most memorable SpaceX missions
It will be the third mission for SpaceX in just over 36 hours. The company launched 53 of its Starlink internet satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday (June 17) and launched a radar satellite for the German military from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday (June 18).
Friday’s mission set a new rocket reuse record for SpaceX; the Falcon 9 that flew it featured a first stage that had already had 12 launches to its credit. (Sunday’s launch will be the ninth for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, according to EverydayAstronaut.com (opens in a new tab).)
SpaceX has really ramped up its launch pace this year, even ahead of the planned trifecta. Sunday morning’s takeoff will be the company’s 26th of 2022, and the year isn’t even half over yet.
Mike Wall is the author of “The low (opens in a new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter (opens in a new tab). Follow us on twitter (opens in a new tab) Or on Facebook (opens in a new tab).
