The Western Hemisphere may host two launches within 15 minutes on Wednesday morning as both Arianespace and SpaceX prepare for satellite delivery missions. The launches are presently scheduled to occur between 7:25am ET (11:25 UTC) and 7:39am ET (11:39 UTC).
First up is Arianespace, with a mission launching from Kourou in French Guiana, over the Atlantic Ocean.
Of note, this will be the 99th launch of the Ariane 5 rocket, which first flew in 1996. This rocket will continue flying until 2022, at which point Arianespace and the European Space Agency will phase out the booster in favor of the Ariane 6 rocket, designed for lower-cost operations in order to compete on the commercial launch market with SpaceX.
The Ariane launch livestream below should begin about 25 minutes before liftoff.
Speaking of SpaceX, its rocket has a launch time less than 15 minutes after the scheduled Ariane 5 liftoff. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch from the west coast of the United States and seeks to deliver 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into a polar orbit 625km above the Earth.
This will be the third flight of the Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 rocket and, if the vehicle launches on Wednesday, it would be the company’s second launch in just over two days.
Wednesday’s flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California will also feature two separate recovery attempts. The droneship will serve as a mobile landing platform for the Falcon 9’s first stage, and the smaller vessel—now equipped with a larger net—will attempt to catch one half of the rocket’s payload fairing.
The Falcon 9 webcast should begin 15 minutes before the scheduled liftoff time—or just about the time the Ariane 5 rocket is taking off.
