{"id":769108,"date":"2026-05-02T22:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T22:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769108\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T22:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T22:26:15","slug":"spacex-launching-45-satellites-to-orbit-early-may-3-watch-it-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769108\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launching 45 satellites to orbit early May 3: Watch it live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"elk-5e310334-d054-4cd0-8ea5-8a0b8e5ee7b7\">SpaceX will launch 45 satellites to orbit from California early Sunday morning (May 3), and you can watch the action live.<\/p>\n<p>A <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18962-spacex-falcon-9.html\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18962-spacex-falcon-9.html\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18962-spacex-falcon-9.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Falcon 9<\/a> rocket is scheduled to lift off from <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/34147-vandenberg-air-force-base.html\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/34147-vandenberg-air-force-base.html\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/34147-vandenberg-air-force-base.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/a> on Sunday during a 37-minute window that opens at 2:59 a.m. EDT (0659 GMT; 11:59 p.m. PDT on May 2 California time).<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-5e310334-d054-4cd0-8ea5-8a0b8e5ee7b7-2\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX<\/a> will stream the liftoff live via <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/cas500-2\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/cas500-2\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">its website<\/a> and X account. Coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch.<\/p>\n<p>            You may like<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-624aa8c9-91f4-4db3-94a5-1b429a689709\">SpaceX calls the mission CAS500-2, after the primary payload going up \u2014 the CAS500-2 Earth-observation satellite, which was developed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.<\/p>\n<p>South Korea&#8217;s CAS500 (&#8220;Compact Advanced Satellite 500&#8221;) program aims to operate a total of five satellites in <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/low-earth-orbit\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/low-earth-orbit\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/low-earth-orbit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">low Earth orbit<\/a>. These spacecraft will gather data for a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eoportal.org\/satellite-missions\/cas500\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.eoportal.org\/satellite-missions\/cas500\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">variety of purposes<\/a>, from disaster monitoring to crop observation.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the satellites have reached orbit to date. CAS500-1 lifted off atop a Russian <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40282-soyuz-rocket.html\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40282-soyuz-rocket.html\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40282-soyuz-rocket.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Soyuz rocket<\/a> in March 2021, and a South Korean Nuri vehicle lofted CAS500-3 <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/satellites\/south-korea-nuri-rocket-cas500-3-earth-observation-satellite-launch\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/satellites\/south-korea-nuri-rocket-cas500-3-earth-observation-satellite-launch\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/satellites\/south-korea-nuri-rocket-cas500-3-earth-observation-satellite-launch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in November 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As its name suggests, CAS500-2 was supposed to be the second off the pad. It was booked to fly on a Soyuz in 2022, but <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/russia-war-ukraine-damage-international-spaceflight-cooperation\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/russia-war-ukraine-damage-international-spaceflight-cooperation\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/russia-war-ukraine-damage-international-spaceflight-cooperation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in February of that year sundered the international partnership that led to the deal, putting the satellite in mothballs for a spell.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/media\/img\/spc-logo-w.svg\" alt=\"Space\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"w-auto h-7 block w-auto mx-auto mb-4 h-[30px]\" data-component-name=\"Image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Previous Booster 1071 missions<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-ccb298a6-572a-4434-8bb1-90afa90e1b39\">Forty-four other satellites are flying along with CAS500-2. They&#8217;re a diverse bunch with many different operators \u2014 Argotec S.r.l, Exolaunch, Impulso.Space, Loft-EarthDaily, Lynk Global, True Anomaly and Planet Labs, according to SpaceX&#8217;s <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/cas500-2\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/cas500-2\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mission description<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If all goes to plan on Sunday morning, the Falcon 9&#8217;s first stage will land back at Vandenberg about 7.5 minutes after liftoff. It will be the 33rd launch and touchdown for this particular booster, which is designated B1071. That&#8217;s just one off the company reuse record, which a Falcon 9 set in late March during a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starlink-satellites.html\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starlink-satellites.html\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starlink-satellites.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Starlink<\/a> broadband-satellite launch.<\/p>\n<p>CAS500-2 will be the first satellite to deploy from the Falcon 9&#8217;s upper stage, at about 60 minutes after liftoff. The other payloads will follow suit over the next hour and a half.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday morning&#8217;s launch will be the 54th of the year so far for SpaceX. All but one of its 2026 missions to date have been Falcon 9 flights; the other one was performed by the company&#8217;s powerful <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39779-falcon-heavy-facts.html\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39779-falcon-heavy-facts.html\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39779-falcon-heavy-facts.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Falcon Heavy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX will launch 45 satellites to orbit from California early Sunday morning (May 3), and you can watch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":769109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-769108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116507337938402068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}