December 28: SpaceX launches two rockets today

SpaceX plans two rocket launches in the next 12 hours, one from California and one from Florida.

The first start is the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday December 28thfrom Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California 5:48 p.m. PST (8:48 EST, 0148 GMT). You can watch the launch about 15 minutes before launch on SpaceX’s X account and mission page.

This mission, called Starlink 11-3, will launch 22 new Starlink internet satellites into orbit for SpaceX’s growing mega-constellation. It will be the 16th flight of the first stage of the Falcon 9 mission. SpaceX hopes to recapture the stage by landing it on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship shortly after launch. Previous missions include 12 Starlnk launches, a Transporter-11 rideshare flight, and the SARah-2 and SDA-0A satellite missions.

The SpaceX’s second launch will actually start Sunday, December 29thbut the start time is over 12pm EST (0500 GMT)a midnight start for the flight. You can watch the launch about 15 minutes before launch on SpaceX’s X account and mission page.

This mission is called “Astranis: From One to Many” and will launch four small “MicroGEO” communications satellites to provide connectivity on Earth to a wide range of customers. Two satellites will provide in-flight connectivity to customers of Colorado-based Anuvu, one will serve a customer in the Philippines and Astranis will use the fourth satellite as a so-called “UtilitySat” for various customers.

This is SpaceX’s second attempt to launch the Astranis mission. A launch attempt on December 21st ended in an abort at the T-0 mark.

That’s it for today’s rocket launches.

NOTE: SpaceX also plans to launch another 21 Starlink satellites, this time from Florida Monday, December 30th, 12pm ESTso we will have an update on that tomorrow. ALSO: An Indian Space Research Organization Polar satellite launch vehicle is set to launch the new SpaDeX to test autonomous rendezvous and docking technology. It also carries 24 other scientific payloads for ISRO, universities and corporates on board its Poem-4 module. ISRO’s SpaDeX is planned Monday, December 30, 11:28 a.m. EST (9:58 p.m. IST, 1628 GMT).).