SpaceX Livestreams Sunday's Rocket Launch (space.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Space.com: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 10 satellites for Iridium Communications is scheduled to liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:25 p.m. PDT (4:25 p.m. EDT/2025 GMT). The live webcast is expected to begin about 1 hour before the opening of the launch window, and you can watch it on SpaceX's website, or at Space.com. This is the second of eight planned Iridium launches with SpaceX. The launches will deliver a total of 75 satellites into space for the $3 billion Iridium NEXT global communications network. "Iridium NEXT will replace the company's existing global constellation in one of the largest technology upgrades ever completed in space," according to a statement from Iridium. "It represents the evolution of critical communications infrastructure that governments and organizations worldwide rely upon to drive business, enable connectivity, empower disaster relief efforts and more."
After the mission the booster rocket will attempt to land on a droneship. The droneships name is "Just Read The Instructions."

Comments

Re:Other recent SpaceX launches

[Rei]

Anyway, spoiling it for those who didn't see it: nice clean landing (despite the stormy weather at the landing ship and the new experimental titanium grid fins), SECO completed as nominally, awaiting startup 2 after the S2 coast phase (40 mins).

Re:Impressive!

[ShanghaiBill]

because yeah, there's been 0 comm sats up there before today, and STILL there's millions starving.

There are many, many fewer people starving, and better communications is a big part of the reason. African economies are growing at over 4%, and growth is far better in areas that have cell coverage. With reliable communications, logistics is way more efficient, people can compare prices, report corruption, lookup information, and even do internet banking. Collectively, these things make a big difference.