Watch SpaceX launch 2 powerful communications satellites on Saturday
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch on its record-tying 14th mission Saturday (Nov. 12), and you can watch the action live.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch Intelsat’s Galaxy 31 and Galaxy 32 satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a two-hour window that opens at 11:06 a.m. EST (1606 GMT). You can watch live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab).
It will be the 14th liftoff for this Falcon 9’s first stage, tying a SpaceX record. The booster also helped loft Demo-2, SpaceX’s first-ever astronaut flight, in May 2020; the RADARSAT Constellation Mission; the SXM-7 spacecraft for SiriusXM; and 10 big batches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, the company wrote in a mission description (opens in new tab).
Related: The 20 most memorable SpaceX missions from its 1st 20 years in photos
This will apparently be the booster’s final flight, however; SpaceX’s mission description says nothing about the rocket coming back to Earth for a safe landing.
If all goes according to plan, Galaxy 31 and Galaxy 32 will be deployed into geosynchronous transfer orbit about 33 minutes and 38 minutes after liftoff, respectively. The duo will help Intelsat refresh its communications fleet, the company said on its website (opens in new tab). The high-speed satellites represent a “new generation of technology” for customers that largely include television broadcasters, Intelsat officials stated.
Galaxy 31 and Galaxy 32 will replace older North American-focused satellites in geosynchronous orbit, meaning they will remain consistently above one area of Earth.
This will be the second Intelsat launch in a month for SpaceX, which lofted the Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 satellites using a Falcon 9 rocket on Oct. 8. (That was the 14th mission for that Falcon 9’s first stage as well, by the way.)
At the time, Intelsat officials said the two Galaxy satellites will provide fresh capabilities in C-band, a radio frequency range that Galaxy 31 and 32 will also use.
Saturday’s launch will be the 52nd overall for SpaceX in 2022, adding to the company’s growing single-year record (which had been 31, set in 2021). The coming mission will also be the 48th flight using a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket this year.
The vast majority of SpaceX launches this year have served to grow the company’s enormous Starlink satellite-internet constellation. But SpaceX has also launched other companies’ satellites to orbit, as well as cargo and crew missions to the International Space Station with Falcon 9s in 2022.
In addition, the SpaceX flew its Falcon Heavy on Nov. 1. The mission, which lofted payloads for the U.S. Space Force, was the first flight of the powerful rocket since June 2019.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
