4 rocket launches in 4 days! You can watch a spy satellite, SpaceX astronaut flight and more online

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By Mike Wall
last updated

There are no guarantees all those rockets will get off the ground on time, however.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the classified NROL-101 spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office stands at Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida ahead of its planned November 2020 liftoff.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the classified NROL-101 spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office stands at Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida ahead of its planned November 2020 liftoff. (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)

Update for 11:30 a.m. EST on Nov. 13: Rocket Lab has pushed the launch of its "Return to Sender" mission to Nov. 18 at 8:44 p.m. EST (0144 GMT on Nov. 19).

Update for 4:20 p.m. EST on Nov. 13: SpaceX's Crew-1 mission has been delayed to Sunday (Nov. 15) at 7:27 p.m. EST (0027 GMT on Nov. 16).

The planned launch of a U.S. spy satellite this afternoon (Nov. 13) could kick off a binge of four liftoffs in four days, if we're lucky.

The National Reconnaissance Office's classified NROL-101 spacecraft is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket at 5:13 p.m. EST (2213 GMT) today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. You can watch that mission live here at Space.com, courtesy of ULA, or directly via the company.

Several other rockets will then take to the skies in relatively quick succession, if all goes according to plan. For example, SpaceX is scheduled to launch its Crew-1 mission on Saturday (Nov. 14) at 7:49 p.m. EST (0049 GMT on Nov. 15). Crew-1, the company's first operational, contracted crewed mission for NASA, will send four astronauts to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.

Next up is Rocket Lab, which will loft its "Return to Sender" mission from New Zealand on Sunday (Nov. 15) during a nearly three-hour window that opens at 8:44 p.m. EST (0144 GMT on Nov. 16). "Return to Sender" will carry 30 satellites to Earth orbit and feature a soft splashdown and recovery of the first stage of Rocket Lab's Electron booster.

Rounding out the spaceflight quartet will be Arianespace, whose Vega rocket will launch two Earth-studying satellites from French Guiana on Monday (Nov. 16) at 8:52 p.m. EST (0152 GMT on Nov. 17).

And there's more action just beyond this four-day stretch: SpaceX's launch of the classified NROL-108 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office could occur as early as Nov. 18, according to Spaceflight Now. Elon Musk's company also plans to launch the Sentinel 6-Michael Freilich Earth-observation satellite, a joint effort of NASA and several European partners, on Nov. 21.

So get excited, but be prepared for a possible letdown as well: There's no guarantee that any of these rockets will get off the ground on time, as the scuttling of a similar "launchapalooza" this past August showed.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.