A SpaceX rocket is set to soar over the Southern California coast Wednesday after a launch from Vandenberg Space Force base.
The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off at 6:40 a.m. California time from the base northwest of Santa Barbara. The rocket will carry 46 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit.
Launches closer to sunrise and sunset offer more spectacular viewing with a dark sky in the background and a sunlit rocket. Sunrise Wednesday is scheduled for 6:09 a.m., so the sky will already be illuminates.
You can watch the launch here.
After separation, the first-stage booster will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
SpaceX has a Starlink constellation of satellites orbiting Earth about 340 miles up, shuttled into space by the Hawthorne-based company’s rockets. The Starlink network is designed to deliver high-speed internet anywhere around the globe.
If light conditions are right, the satellites appear in a train as they parade across the night sky. The satellites are sometimes visible in the first few minutes after sundown and before sunrise when the sun is below the horizon, but the satellites are high enough to reflect direct sunlight.
Use the FindStarlink tracker to find the best upcoming viewing times.
The launch comes nearly a week after SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket blasted off on its first test flight from the southern tip of Texas. The plan was to send the spacecraft around the world, but the rocket began to spin out and then exploded four minutes into the flight.
