Skip to main content

How to watch SpaceX’s delayed double satellite launch tonight

SpaceX had been set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a satellite deployment mission on the evening of Thursday, October 6, but the launch was called off at the last minute by a helium leak. Now, the launch will instead go ahead tonight, Saturday, October 8.

Intelsat G-33/G-34 Mission

The rocket will carry two telecommunications satellites for the company Intelsat called Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34, and will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Recommended Videos

What to expect from the launch

The previous launch attempt on Thursday had to be called off just 30 seconds before liftoff, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later announced on Twitter that the issue was a small helium leak. “Tiny helium leak (just barely triggered abort), but we take no risks with customer satellites,” he wrote. “Standing down to investigate.” The company then confirmed that both the rocket and the two satellites were well and would be ready for launch today.

It has become rare these days for SpaceX launches to be called off due to technical issues, as the company has generally set up a very smooth system for deploying payloads. But issues can still occur with any complex technology, even following a success like this week’s launching of four astronauts to the International Space Station using a Falcon 9.

How to watch the launch

SpaceX will be livestreaming the launch for the G-33/G-34 mission, so you’ll be able to watch along at home. The launch window for the mission is 70 minutes long, and it opens at 7:05 p.m. ET (4:05 p.m. PT). You’ll be able to watch the final preparations before launch, the liftoff, then the separation of the stages, and be notified of the eventual deployment of the satellites. There will also be the always exciting catching of the rocket’s first stage booster, which will come into land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas which will be waiting in the Atlantic Ocean.

To watch the livestream, you can either head to SpaceX’s YouTube channel or use the video which is embedded near the top of this page. The livestream begins around 15 minutes before launch, so that will be around 6:50 p.m. ET (3:50 p.m. PT) today, Saturday, October 8.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
SpaceX is about to launch 4 humans to orbit. Here’s how to watch
The International Space Station.

UPDATE: NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom Space have stepped from its effort to launch the Ax-4 mission on Sunday, June 22. They said they need more time to evaluate International Space Station operations after recent repair work in the station's Zvezda service module. When a new target launch date is announced, we will update the article below]

This weekend will see the fourth crewed launch by private firm Axiom Space.

Read more
Watch this SpaceX rocket launch on 15th anniversary of first Falcon 9 liftoff
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches on the 15th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared skyward on Wednesday on what was also the 15th anniversary of the first-ever Falcon 9 launch.

The anniversary mission launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, deploying 27 Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit.

Read more
SpaceX wants to send humans to Mars by 2028, here’s why it won’t
The Starship rocket on the launchpad.

This week saw another dramatic test of SpaceX's Starship, when the mighty rocket exploded once again, and both the upper and lower stages were lost. The test wasn't a complete failure, as the upper stage did reach space for the first time, but it's clear that there's still a lot of work to do to make the world's most powerful rocket something that can be relied on for its eventual intended use: carrying crew to Mars.

Undaunted by this latest setback, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced in a talk shared yesterday, May 29, that the company would be sending "millions of people" to Mars, in order to create a "self-sustaining civilization" there. The aim, Musk says, is to launch a Starship to Mars by 2026, and if that goes well, then to launch a crewed mission two years later, in late 2028 or early 2029.

Read more