Today (Feb. 4) is slated to be a banner day for spaceflight, with a record-breaking five rocket launches scheduled over the next 24 hours.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab and the Russian space agency Roscosmos all have missions slated for liftoff today. They are spread across a total of about 20 hours, with several hours of waiting between each. To catch them all, you’re going to have to wake up well before the sun rises, and the last launch of the day will have you up alongside your local late night news.
But FIVE launches in one day? It might be worth missing some sleep over, and depending on your own schedule today, you’ll have plenty of time to squeeze naps in between engine ignitions.
You’ll have to set your alarm extra early for today’s first planned flight. SpaceX is scheduled to launch a batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window that opens at 3:37 a.m. EST (0837 GMT). The satellites, group 12-3, will be released in low-Earth orbit to join the growing internet constellation. SpaceX will stream that launch live through its profile on X, beginning about five minutes before liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellites: Facts, tracking and impact on astronomy
You’ll have time to catch a little sleep, or to make a pot or two of coffee, before the next launch. Blue Origin is targeting 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) for liftoff of the company’s suborbital New Shepard rocket on the NS-29 uncrewed research mission. NS-29 was supposed to launch last week, but that attempt was scrubbed due to weather and a rocket issue. New Shepard is carrying 30 science payloads, which will experience about two minutes of simulated moon gravity thanks to the capsule’s rotation. NS-29 will be streamed on the Space.com homepage, as well as on Blue Origin’s YouTube page.
Next, Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The “IoT 4 You and Me” mission is carrying five satellites for the French company Kinéis’ planned 25-satellite constellation, which is designed for tracking and real-time alerts across the globe. The IoT (Internet of Things) mission is scheduled for 3:43 p.m. EST (2043 GMT, 11:43 a.m. local New Zealand time), and will also be streamed on Space.com.
SpaceX plans to launch a second mission this evening, which wouldn’t be shocking — the company has sent two rockets up just hours apart before. A pair of Maxar Technology WorldView Legion satellites will launch on a Falcon 9 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Earth-observation satellites will complete a constellation of six WorldView Legion spacecraft, which are part of a larger group of 10 Maxar satellites designed for imaging rapidly changing areas of the planet. That launch is slated for 6:07 p.m. EST (2307 GMT), with a livestream available on SpaceX’s X page beginning around 5:50 p.m. ET (2250 GMT).
Rounding out this busy launch day will be a mission with a bit of mystery involved. Roscosmos is scheduled to launch an unknown payload from its seldom-used Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in Russia’s northwest. The classified payload will launch from the facility’s Site-43, on a Soyuz 2.1V/Volga rocket — similar to Russia’s workhorse Soyuz rocket, but with a modified, stronger central booster and no side boosters. The launch is scheduled for 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT on Feb. 5).
As you pace yourself through the record-breaking day, however, keep in mind that any one of these launches could end up being scrubbed.
If there’s one scrub, the day becomes merely record-tying. If two happen to scrub, well, then you’ll just get to see three — and the math continues likewise. No matter the day’s outcome, take solace in the fact that there were even five launches scheduled in one day to begin with. That, in itself, is a testament to the ubiquity of spaceflight today, and the leaps the industry has taken for such a cadence to become possible.
Article by:Source: jdinner@space.com (Josh Dinner)
