SpaceX will launch its a hundredth mission of the yr immediately (Aug. 7), and you’ll watch the motion stay.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 of Amazon’s Undertaking Kuiper web satellites is scheduled to carry off from Cape Canaveral House Drive Station in Florida immediately, throughout a 27-minute window that opens at 10:01 a.m. EDT (1401 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the launch stay by way of its web site and X account, starting about quarter-hour earlier than liftoff.
Right now’s launch would be the 97th Falcon 9 liftoff of the yr already and SpaceX’s a hundredth mission of 2025 total. The opposite three have been suborbital check flights of Starship, the large, reusable automobile that the corporate is creating to assist humanity settle Mars.
SpaceX additionally operates a 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which hasn’t flown since October 2024, when it despatched NASA’s Europa Clipper probe towards the Jupiter system.
If SpaceX maintains its present tempo, it’ll launch about 165 instances this yr. That will break the corporate’s single-year file of 138, which it set in 2024. (Final yr’s breakdown: 132 Falcon 9 liftoffs, two Falcon Heavy launches and 4 Starship check flights.)
Greater than 70% of this yr’s Falcon 9 launches have been devoted to constructing out Starlink, SpaceX’s broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO). Starlink at present consists of greater than 8,100 operational satellites, and it is rising on a regular basis.
Undertaking Kuiper, Amazon’s model of Starlink, continues to be within the early buildout stage. Right now’s launch might be simply the fourth Kuiper liftoff so far and can carry the variety of satellites within the new constellation to 102.
Kuiper will ultimately include over 3,200 spacecraft, which might be lofted on greater than 80 launches over the following few years. Quite a lot of rockets will do that work; along with the Falcon 9, Amazon has enlisted Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.
If all goes to plan immediately, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down within the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”
It is going to be the debut flight for this specific booster, in accordance with a SpaceX mission description. That is fairly uncommon, as the corporate is understood for its rocket reuse; its most-flown Falcon 9 has 29 flights beneath its belt.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, will proceed carrying the 24 Undertaking Kuiper satellites to LEO. They will be deployed over a 7.5-minute span starting about 56 minutes after liftoff, if all goes to plan.
