SpaceX prepares to launch Starlink satellites in Florida as part of its mission to expand the Internet

The mission’s live webcast will begin about five minutes before liftoff.

A backup liftoff time of 12:59 p.m. is being considered, and if necessary, an additional launch opportunity is being considered for 8:35 a.m. EDT on Thursday the following day.

There is a 70 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for liftoff with cumulus and anvil clouds likely, according to the 45th Weather Squadron.

Of the 21 satellites, 13 have “direct-to-airframe” capability, as did about half of the satellites on previous successful missions into low-Earth orbit.

The mission, dubbed Starlink 8-11, if successful will be the 7,000th Starlink satellite launched to date, according to statistics compiled by an astronomer.

A Falcon 9 rocket with tail number B1077 will deploy the new batch of 21 Starlink internet satellites packed inside the fairing atop the 230-foot rocket on Wednesday.

This mission will be the 15th flight of the first stage rocket supporting this mission. It previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-F2, CRS-28, Intelsat G-37, NG-20 and eight other Starlink missions.

Following separation of the stages, the first stage will land on the “Just Read The Instructions” drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX on Saturday carried out back-to-back launches of Falcon 9 rockets carrying Starlink satellites into orbit, just hours after U.S. officials lifted a temporary ban on the rocket fleet.

The 3:43 a.m. launch was followed about an hour later by another Starlink Falcon 9 satellite launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If Wednesday’s mission is successful, it will bring the total number of Starlink DTC satellites in orbit to 194 launched to date.

Starlink services have been available in the Solomon Islands, a nation of 21 islands northeast of Australia, since Tuesday, the company said.

SpaceX had previously said it aimed to launch an average of 12 Falcon rockets per month, with an ideal total of 144 launches this year alone. Company officials had previously claimed they are still on track to meet their goals.

The company had deployed 20 Starlink satellite launches by July and already had several others in the pipeline.

That launch marked the installation of wireless Internet in Madagascar, followed weeks later by expansions in Botswana, Ghana and other nations on the African continent.

In May, SpaceX launched another 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, the company’s third liftoff in two days at that point.