SpaceX will launch 21 Starlink satellites early Jan. 21 for the first flight since the Starship explosion

SpaceX is expected to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites early Tuesday morning (January 21), five days after a test flight of the company’s Starship mega-rocket ended in an explosion.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday during a nearly four-hour window that opens at 12:24 a.m. EST (0524 GMT).

SpaceX will broadcast the action live via its X account approximately five minutes before launch.

The Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff and touch down in the Atlantic Ocean with the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”

According to a SpaceX mission description, it will be the eighth launch and landing of this particular booster. Three of its seven flights to date have been Starlink missions.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will carry the 21 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit and deploy them there about 65 minutes after launch.

Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky

Tuesday morning’s launch will be the ninth Falcon 9 mission of 2025 and SpaceX’s 10th launch overall this year. The other mission was the seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, which took place Thursday (Jan. 16) from South Texas.

This flight was a mixed bag for the company. Starship’s massive Super Heavy first stage booster returned to its launch site, where it was dramatically caught by the tower’s “rod” arms, but the vehicle’s upper stage exploded just 8.5 minutes after liftoff, apparently after a fuel leak occurred.

SpaceX will launch 21 Starlink satellites early Jan. 21 for the first flight since the Starship explosion

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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