For the third time in a week, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will blast off over Southern California to deliver Starlink satellites into orbit.
The next rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California is due to liftoff Friday, May 16. The impending mission is the third Starlink satellite deployment that Elon Musk’s commercial spaceflight company has conducted within a week from the California launch site.
Once again, SpaceX’s famous two-stage Falcon 9 rocket will get off the ground to deliver a batch of 26 internet-beaming satellites into what’s called low-Earth orbit – an altitude that allows for things like satellites to circle Earth fairly quickly.
SpaceX always provides livestreams of its Starlink missions for the public to follow along, but for Californians, seeing the rocket launch may be as easy as stepping outside and looking up.
Here’s what to know about the launch, as well as when and where to watch it:
What time is the SpaceX rocket launch from California?
The launch is targeted for 6:43 a.m. PT (9:43 a.m. ET) Friday, May 16, according to a launch alert from Vandenberg Space Force Base. If SpaceX opts to scrub the launch, backup opportunities are available starting at 10:32 a.m. PT Saturday, May 17, according to a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory.
The launch, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to deliver the Starlink satellites, will take place from Launch Complex 4E from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California.
Following the delivery and deployment of the satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster will aim to land on a SpaceX drone ship, nicknamed “Of Course I Still Love You,” in the Pacific Ocean. This allows for SpaceX personnel to recover the booster so it can be reused in future spaceflights.
Will there be sonic booms?
Residents of Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County and Ventura County could hear sonic booms, according to Vandenberg’s alert.
Sonic booms are brief, thunder-like noises that are often heard from the ground when a spacecraft or aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound.
How to watch SpaceX Starlink launch from Vandenberg, California
SpaceX said it will provide a livestream of the launch on its website beginning about five minutes before liftoff, along with updates on social media site X.
Where to watch the Starlink launch in California
Because Vandenberg is an active military base, the launch complex does not host public viewings of launches.
But if conditions are clear, rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Vandenberg, California, can be viewed from several locations as far as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
Space Launch Schedule, a website dedicated to tracking upcoming rocket launches, provided a list of places in California to catch the launch in person:
The city of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County is filled with places to catch a rocket launch. The city’s tourism bureau, Explore Lompoc, has this list with additional viewing locations:
What is SpaceX?
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., more widely known as SpaceX, is an astronautics company owned and co-founded by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.
The commercial spaceflight company is contracted with NASA and the Department of Defense to use many of its spacecraft to help launch government missions. SpaceX also conducts many of its own rocket launches – most using its two-stage Falcon 9 rocket – including for private crewed missions and to deliver communication satellites to orbit.
What is the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California?
Established in 1941, the Vandenberg Space Force Base, previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a site for both military, civil and commercial space launches.
Agencies like NASA and companies like SpaceX routinely launch spacecraft from Vandenberg, a site where where missile testing also takes place. Just recently, for instance, Texas spaceflight company Firefly Aerospace attempted to launch prototype satellites into orbit for Lockheed Martin from the base.
What is Starlink?
Owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Starlink is a constellation of more than 6,700 satellites that provide internet service to customers around the world.
SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company, has spent more than six years delivering the satellites to orbit with a regular cadence of rocket launches from Florida and California.
While most satellite internet services operate from single geostationary satellites orbiting Earth at about 22,236 miles, Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites that operate from a low-Earth orbit, about 341 miles up. That allows Starlink’s satellites to have lower latency and data time between user and the satellite, improving performance of things like streaming, online gaming and video calls.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: SpaceX rocket launch today from California: When is liftoff, where to see Falcon 9
Reporting by Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY NETWORK / Ventura County Star
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