When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the NROL-167 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Oct. 24, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX) SpaceX is set to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites today (Jan. 18), just two days after a test flight of the company's Starship megarocket ended in an explosion. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 27 Starlink craft is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base today, during a nearly two-hour window that opens at 12:03 p.m. EST (1703 GMT; 9:03 a.m. local time). SpaceX will webcast the action live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before launch. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9's first stage will return to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." You may like