The delayed Falcon 9 mission to deliver OneWeb satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base could happen as soon as Saturday night.
Liftoff of the two-stage rocket built by SpaceX reportedly will occur during a launch window opening at 10:13 p.m. Saturday from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base. SpaceX revised the time after initially saying it would occur earlier.
If needed, a backup opportunity is available at 10:08 p.m. Sunday.
After finishing its chores, the first-stage booster, or lower two-thirds of the vehicle, will return to Vandenberg, landing just west of the launch pad eight minutes after liftoff.
That return will likely cause sonic booms audible in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
Falcon will carry 20 OneWeb spacecraft for Eutelsat Group.
The mission initially aimed for late September, when it would have been the fifth of the month. However, a glitch after a Florida mission that required an investigation delayed the departure of the OneWeb mission for a few weeks.
This will be the second Falcon 9 launch of October from Vandenberg.
OneWeb, a constellation of more than 600 satellites, provides broadband Internet services.
For instance, the high-speed, low-latency will aid researchers in Antarctica, where historically they have had limited access, according to Eutelsat.
Along with better reliability, OneWeb provides data-rates up to 120 megabits per second, significantly more than the 1-5 Mbps previously available to the researchers.
Vandenberg also saw other OneWeb satellites travel to space on a Falcon 9 rocket for a rideshare mission in May 2023.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff and can be viewed on www.spacex.com and on X @SpaceX (formerly Twitter).