SpaceX Launching Internet Satellites Aboard Used Rocket Sunday: Watch Live

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX Launching Internet Satellites Aboard Used Rocket Sunday: Watch Live
Space.com
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer |  February 17, 2018 05:30am ET



The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lands on a "drone ship" in the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24, 2017, after helping launch the Formosat-5 satellite. This same booster will launch again on Feb. 18, 2018, lofting the Paz satellite for Spanish operator Hisdesat, along with two SpaceX satellite-internet prototypes.  Credit: SpaceX

 

SpaceX plans to launch the first two prototypes for its vast satellite-internet constellation Sunday (Feb. 18), and you can watch the liftoff live.

The satellites are scheduled to lift off aboard a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast on Sunday at 9:16 a.m. EST (1416 GMT; 6:16 a.m. local California time). Watch the launch live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via SpaceX's website.

This Falcon 9's first stage has flown once before, helping loft a Taiwanese Earth-observing satellite in August 2017. The first stage landed on one of SpaceX's "drone ships" in the ocean on that occasion, but no such landing will be attempted Sunday, SpaceX representatives said.

The main purpose of Sunday's launch is getting the Paz satellite to orbit for Spanish operator Hisdesat. Paz will generate sharp radar imagery of Earth for a variety of customers, including the Spanish government, over the course of the satellite's 5.5-year mission.

The two prototype satellite-internet craft will be riding along as secondary payloads, according to documents SpaceX has filed with the Federal Communications Commission. (SpaceX has not commented publicly about the inclusion of these two prototypes, known as Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, on Sunday's flight.)

The prototypes are designed to help lay the groundwork for SpaceX's Starlink constellation, a network of several thousand satellites in Earth orbit that the company envisions providing low-cost internet service to people around the world. SpaceX representatives have said the company aims to get Starlink up and running, at least in a limited capacity, by 2020.


https://www.space.com/39733-spacex-launching-internet-satellites-used-rocket-watch-live.html

[Geo]

Has anyone here watched those SpaceX launches live on TV?
Do ads come with the live feed?

[Buster's Uncle]

Only once live, IIRC.  There are no commercial breaks, exactly, if that's what you're asking, or banners popping up.  The whole thing is a sort of ad for SpaceX, of course.

[Geo]

Yes, of course. I was just wondering if SpaceX tried to get a little extra out of their live feeds.