SpaceX Starlink launches in May 2024
Starlink Group 6-64: May 31, 2024, 10:37 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-60: May 28, 2024, 10:24 am EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-63: May 23, 2024, 10:45 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-62: May 22, 2024, 10:35 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-59: May 17, 2024, 8:32 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 8-7: May 14, 2024, 11:39 am PDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg Space Force Station, California | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-58: May 12, 2024, 8:53 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 8-2: May 9, 2024, 9:30 pm PDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg Space Force Station, California | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-56: May 8, 2024, 2:42 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-57: May 6, 2024, 2:14 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 6-55: May 2, 2024, 10:37 pm EDT
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS
You can watch a livestream of the Starlink launches on SpaceX’s X account.
Watch this space for updates!
After launch, look for a train of lights
Following every Starlink launch, the internet buzzes with people asking:
What’s that long line of lights in the sky that looks like a train?
What you’re seeing is the Starlink satellites moving into a higher orbit. You can check to see if they will pass over your area using the Find Starlink website.
Growing numbers amid controversy
According to Wikipedia, as of early March 2024, Starlink consists of over 6,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with designated ground transceivers. They provide internet access to more than 2 million subscribers.
Love ’em or hate ’em, these Starlink satellites are part of SpaceX’s vision for a global internet communication satellite constellation. They deliver high-speed internet service worldwide, mainly to locations where ground-based internet is unreliable, unavailable or expensive. The private company is well-known for launching batches back-to-back, several times a month, regularly lofting 60 satellites at a time. And SpaceX plans to build up to perhaps as many as 30,000 eventually.
Most thought it was exciting to see the first few Starlink satellites traveling together in the night sky. But then more were launched, and then more. And astronomers began to worry.
Because Starlinks are bright, astronomers say they’re photobombing astronomical images. Therefore, they have the potential to interfere with the professional astronomical observations that have brought us our modern-day view of the cosmos. And although SpaceX has tried to address the issue, they remain far from what astronomers say is acceptable.
Bottom line: Get a list of all the SpaceX Starlink launches for May 2024 from both the West and East Coasts. Find out how to watch the livestream, and get updates, too.
Read more from EarthSky: Starlink satellites can look like a plume or train of light