Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

How to watch SpaceX Starlink launch with booster on 13th mission

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

In a few hours, SpaceX will launch a further batch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit using one of its Falcon 9 rockets. The launch will take place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and the company will livestream it so you can watch along at home. Read on for all the details and how to watch.

Starlink Mission

What to expect from the launch

SpaceX regularly launches fresh batches of Starlink satellites to add to its constellation which aims to provide global broadband-speed internet via satellite. The company typically launches between 50 and 60 satellites per batch, and the rocket used in today’s launch will carry 53 satellites into very low-Earth orbit.

Recommended Videos

SpaceX is famous for its reusable boosters, as once a Falcon 9 first stage is no longer needed it separates from its rocket and returns to Earth, either to land on solid ground or, more commonly, to be caught by a droneship stationed in the ocean. After it separates from the rocket today, the booster will be caught by the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The particular booster being used in today’s Falcon 9 launch has flown on 12 previous missions, including the first crewed test of SpaceX’s crew spacecraft Dragon called Demo-2, as well as the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and nine previous Starlink missions.

How to watch the launch

The launch is scheduled for 10:20 a.m. ET (7:20 a.m. PT) on Sunday, July 17. If poor weather or any other issue forces the launch to be called off, there is another launch window available tomorrow, Monday, June 18, at 10:28 a.m. ET (7:28 a.m. PT).

Coverage of the launch is available from SpaceX, and you can watch it either by going to SpaceX’s YouTube channel or by using the video embedded at the top of this page. Coverage is scheduled to begin around 10 minutes before liftoff, so a bit after 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT).

Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Former Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Topics
NASA built the Roman Space Telescope to study dark matter, but it can also help protect Earth from killer asteroids
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope wasn't built to hunt asteroids, but it turns out to be great at it.
Nancy Grace Roman space telescope.

NASA is about to launch a telescope built to unlock some of the universe's biggest mysteries, and it turns out that same design could help protect Earth along the way.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on August 30, 2026, with a primary mission focused on studying dark matter and dark energy - the invisible forces shaping galaxies and cosmic expansion. Researchers now say its unique design also makes it unexpectedly effective at spotting dangerous asteroids headed our way (via MIT Technology Review).

Read more
Space is becoming Bezos and Musk’s next data center site, and we have every reason to worry
The AI boom is coming for the night sky
How Vast's space station will look in orbit.

AI data centers already consume vast amounts of electricity and water on Earth, so Silicon Valley has begun looking somewhere considerably more spacious... literally.

Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, along with several other companies, have proposed enormous constellations of satellites designed to operate as orbital data centers. However, environmental groups and former space officials are now warning that putting them into orbit at the proposed scale could have severe consequences for Earth's atmosphere and the night sky.

Read more
The first possible exomoon is here, and it makes our Moon look hilariously tiny
Scientists may have found the first exomoon, except this one is the size of Jupiter
This artist’s concept depicts a potential volcanic moon between the exoplanet WASP-49 b, left, and its parent star. New evidence indicating that a massive sodium cloud observed near WASP-49 b is produced by neither the planet nor the star has prompted researchers to ask if its origin could be an exomoon.

We have already discovered more than 6,000 planets outside of our immediate neighborhood. Yet, finding a moon orbiting one of those distant worlds has proved considerably harder. Astronomers may finally have something close to the real deal, but this particular object stretches the word “moon” almost beyond recognition.

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, researchers detected strong evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Further observations are still necessary to confirm the discovery, but it could become the first confidently detected natural satellite outside our solar system. There is still one tiny complication though. This moon is apparently massive.

Read more