Watch SpaceX Launch Today: Live Stream, Mission Objectives, and Best Viewing Tips

Cape Canaveral, Fla. – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is poised to roar off Space Launch Complex-40 this morning, kicking off the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission that will loft 32 diverse payloads toward low-Earth orbit. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:04 a.m. EDT (1104 UTC), with a one-hour window and a favorable 90 % weather outlook. Today’s launch follows Monday’s scrub triggered by rough seas in the booster-recovery zone, but meteorologists say a south-moving cold front should calm winds enough for a “go” on the second attempt. After stage separation, veteran booster B1085—making its 19th flight—will aim for another droneship landing, potentially marking the 672nd Falcon recovery and the 167th touchdown on “A Shortfall of Gravitas.” Headlining the 32-satellite manifest is SpaceX’s own Starfall re-entry capsule, a 2,100 kg micro-gravity lab designed to ferry up to a metric ton of research payloads back to Earth. Pharmaceutical startup Varda Space Industries is also flying its W-7 capsule to test the cancer drug Protac in orbit, while multinational manager Exolaunch arranged 20 satellites that include HawkEye 360 radio-frequency monitors, Iceye radar imagers, and Xona Space navigation craft. Additional hardware ranges from Portal Space Systems’ maneuverable Starburst-1 tech demo to university CubeSats, making Bandwagon-5 one of SpaceX’s most eclectic dedicated rideshares yet. The rocket will head on a mid-inclination trajectory, offering customers access to orbits popular for Earth-observation constellations. Payload deployments will begin roughly an hour after liftoff and continue into a controlled “launch and deploy” sequence lasting about 30 minutes. SpaceX will webcast the countdown and launch live on its website and X (formerly Twitter), with coverage beginning roughly an hour before launch. Viewers can look for the trademark “space jellyfish” twilight plume as Falcon 9 climbs through dawn—photogenic conditions that routinely light up social media and drive search traffic around every SpaceX launch today. For space enthusiasts, satellite operators, and investors tracking reusable-launch economics, Bandwagon-5 provides another data point in SpaceX’s push for rapid-cadence missions and commercial in-space manufacturing—a trend likely to intensify as the company gears up for its upcoming Starship flights and more frequent Falcon rideshares later this year.