Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches back-to-back Falcon 9 rockets from both coasts.
First up is the launch of two NASA missions: SPHEREx and PUNCH on a rideshare mission. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT, 0310 UTC) on Tuesday, March 11. The first-stage booster, tail number B1088, making its third flight, will return to Vandenberg for a touchdown at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) a little less than eight minutes into the flight.
The SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observatory is an infrared telescope will perform an all-sky survey over the course of its two-year planned mission. PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) consists of four spacecraft that will collectively observe the inner heliosphere to help better understand the transition of the Sun's corona into solar wind.
That will be followed by a mission to deploy 21 second-generation satellites for the Starlink internet service. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida is scheduled for 11:48 p.m. EDT (0348 UTC) on Tuesday, March 11. The first-stage booster, tail number B1069, making its 22nd flight will land on SpaceX's drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas', stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, a little more than eight minutes after leaving the launch pad.
The Starlink 12-21 mission will take a south-easterly trajectory on departure from Florida's Space Coast.
Our live coverage with commentary from Will Robinson-Smith will begin about an hour before the launch of SPHEREx and PUNCH.
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