SpaceX will hit a big round-number milestone today (Oct. 18), and you can watch it happen live.<\/p>\n
A Falcon 9<\/a> rocket carrying 28 of SpaceX’s Starlink<\/a> internet satellites is scheduled to launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/a> today, during a four-hour window that opens at 7:46 p.m. EDT (2346 GMT; 4:46 p.m. local California time).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SpaceX<\/a> has lofted 9,988 Starlink satellites to date, according to<\/a> astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. So today’s launch \u2014 which you can watch via the company’s its website<\/a> or X account \u2014 will take that number above 10,000.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n SpaceX launched its first two Starlink prototypes to low Earth orbit<\/a> (LEO) in February 2018,<\/a> then began building the megaconstellation in earnest 15 months later. The company offered Starlink service for the first time with a public beta test in October 2020 and started a commercial rollout the next year.<\/p>\n Starlink now provides service to millions of customers around the world, and SpaceX continues to beef up that product by sending more and more satellites to the final frontier.<\/p>\n The pace has reached extraordinary levels lately: SpaceX launched 89 Starlink missions in 2024<\/a> and has already exceeded that number this year. And don’t expect it to stop anytime soon: SpaceX already has permission to loft 12,000 Starlink satellites, and the megaconstellation could eventually consist of more than 30,000 spacecraft.<\/p>\n