Live coverage: SpaceX launches first mission of 2022

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 49 Starlink broadband satellites.

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SpaceX’s first launch of 2022 took off Thursday afternoon, when a Falcon 9 rocket carried 49 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit.

Launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 4:49 p.m. EST (2149 GMT), and the Falcon 9 tracked southeast from Florida’s Space Coast just north of the Bahamas, rather than the more typical northeasterly route to orbit.

You can watch a replay of our live launch coverage on this page.

This was SpaceX’s first launch of the year, following a record launch rate in 2021 with 31 Falcon 9 missions from the company’s three active launch pads in Florida and California.

The mission, designated Starlink 4-5, aimed to release the 49 Starlink satellites into an elliptical orbit about 15 minutes after liftoff. The Falcon 9 flew with a reused first stage booster, numbered B1062, on its fourth mission to space.

ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1062.4)

PAYLOAD: 49 Starlink satelllites

LAUNCH SITE: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

LAUNCH DATE: Jan. 6, 2022

LAUNCH TIME: 4:49 p.m. EST (2149 GMT)

WEATHER FORECAST: 80% probability of acceptable weather

BOOSTER RECOVERY: “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship north of the Bahamas

LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Southeast

TARGET ORBIT: 210 miles by 130 miles (339 kilometers by 210 kilometers), 53.2 degrees inclination

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