Rocket Lab and SpaceX both plan to launch missions on Friday (April 1), and you can watch the space doubleheader live.
A Rocket Lab Electron vehicle is scheduled to loft two Earth-observing satellites for the American company BlackSky on Friday at 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 GMT) from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand site.
Nearly four hours later, at 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying to orbit 40 satellites for a variety of customers, weather permitting. Forecasts currently predict just a 30% chance of weather good enough for liftoff, SpaceX tweeted on Thursday (March 31).
The Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth shortly after liftoff and land on an autonomous droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, if all goes according to plan.
You can watch both missions here at Space.com when the times come, courtesy of the two launch providers. You can also follow the action directly from Rocket Lab and SpaceX.
Related: The evolution of SpaceX’s rockets in pictures
The Rocket Lab launch, dubbed “Without Mission a Beat,” will be the 25th Electron launch overall. If all goes according to plan, it will bring the number of satellites delivered to orbit by California-based Rocket Lab to 112, according to a company mission description.
Rocket Lab has been working to make the two-stage Electron’s first stage reusable, bringing boosters down for soft ocean splashdowns and recoveries on several previous missions. There will be no such activities on “Without Mission a Beat,” however.
SpaceX routinely reuses rockets already, and its Friday mission, called Transporter 4, will continue that trend. The first stage of the Falcon 9 flying on Friday already has six launches and landings under its belt, according to a SpaceX mission description.
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Friday’s two launches are part of a very busy and exciting day for space fans. Friday also marks the start of the three-day-long “wet dress rehearsal” for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, which will use a huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to send an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon.
During the wet dress rehearsal, Artemis 1 team members will go through many of their prelaunch procedures, including fueling up the SLS. If all goes well with the test, Artemis 1 could get off the ground as early as May or June.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.