Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB

SpaceX is preparing to launch another 24 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit onboard a Falcon 9 rocket flying from Vandenberg Space Force Base Saturday night.

The Starlink 17-2 mission will take a south-westerly trajectory as the rocket soars from Space Launch Complex 4 East. It will deploy the satellites into a polar orbit to bolster internet service in the world’s polar regions.

SpaceX is targeting liftoff at 8:55 p.m. PDT (11:55 p.m. EDT / 0355 UTC). Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning about 30 minutes prior to launch.

SpaceX is using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1075, which will make its 19th trip to space and back. Its previous missions included the Transporter-11 rideshare, SARah-2 and 15 batches of Starlink satellites.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1075 will target a landing on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 142nd landing for this vessel and the 481st booster landing to date for SpaceX.

The mission comes as the company readies its third and final, planned astronaut mission of the year, which is set to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday at the earliest. The four members of that mission, dubbed Crew-11, arrived in the Sunshine State Saturday afternoon ahead of a launch rehearsal scheduled for Monday.