Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

How to watch SpaceX’s Hispasat Amazonas Nexus launch today

By

SpaceX will be performing a launch today, Sunday, February 5, of a Spanish communications satellite, using one of its signature Falcon 9 rockets.

Hispasat Amazonas Nexus Mission

If you fancy watching along with the launch and the always exciting retrieval of the first stage booster, there is a livestream available and we have the details on how to watch below.

Recommended Videos

What to expect from the launch

The launch will take place from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, providing the weather doesn’t pose a problem. If the launch does get delayed for any reason, there is a backup launch opportunity tomorrow, Monday, February 6.

Related

As is often the case for SpaceX launches, the first stage booster used by the Falcon 9 rocket for this launch has flown on several previous missions. These include three previous Starlink missions, as well as the Ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1 and the launch of another communications satellite called SES-22.

The payload is a satellite called Amazonas Nexus, being launched for the communications company Hispasat. According to the company, the satellite features a new technology called a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) that “is essential to increase the geographical flexibility of the mission to respond to eventual evolutions with respect to the initially envisaged commercial scenario.”

The satellite will have coverage over North America and South America including Greenland, and will be used to provide telecommunications services in a part of the microwave range called Ku band.

How to watch the launch

The launch will be livestreamed by SpaceX, including the final preparations before launch, the liftoff itself, and key mission moments like the separation of the first stage and fairing, as well as the deployment of the payloads. The livestream will also show the vertical landing of the first stage, which will be caught by the drone ship Just Read the Instructions, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Coverage will begin around 15 minutes before liftoff, so that’s around 5:15 p.m. ET (2:15 p.m. PT) on Sunday, February 5. You can watch the livestream either by heading to SpaceX’s YouTube page for the event or by using the video embedded near the top of this page.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
See SpaceX’s mighty Starship on the launchpad ahead of sixth test flight
spacex starship on pad sixth test flight gcnypiwa4aaqgll 75

As SpaceX gears up for the sixth test flight of its mighty Starship, the company has shared images of the rocket out on the launchpad at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The images capture the striking view of the almost 400-foot-tall rocket, with the 165-foot-tall upper stage mounted on top of the Super Heavy booster.

The test flight is scheduled for Monday, November 18, with the aim being to test new facilities such as burning one of the Raptor engines on the upper stage while in space to test future abilities to perform a deorbit burn. The company will also be hoping to once again catch the incoming booster for reuse using the giant "chopsticks" at its pad, as it previously did for the first time during the fifth test flight of the Starship in October.

Read more
How to watch the prolific Leonid meteor shower, which peaks this weekend
The Lyrid meteor shower

This month will see a striking astronomical event, as the prolific Leonid meteor shower sends lights streaming through the sky at night until November 30. If you're hoping to catch a great view of the meteor shower, then this weekend is the perfect time to go meteor hunting as the shower peaks during the evening of November 18.

The Leonids are created by debris left over from a comet called 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. “As comets orbit the sun, the ice sublimes [changes from a solid to a gas] and the trapped dust is swept out into a tail behind them,” explained Ashley King of the U.K.'s National History Museum.  “As they come out of the vacuum of space and into Earth’s atmosphere, that little dust grain interacts with all the particles and ions in the atmosphere. It gets heated up by the friction and forms the impressive flash that we see. The Earth isn’t close to the comet – it’s just passing through some of the dust it left behind.”

Read more
SpaceX Dragon to give the International Space Station an altitude boost today
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the space station.

Friday will see a new event for the International Space Station (ISS) as a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is used to boost its altitude for the first time. As drag works on the space station, its altitude gradually degrades over time, and so it needs to be given an occasional push to keep it at its correct altitude, around 250 miles from the Earth's surface.

The reboost is scheduled for today, November 8, as one of the Dragons that is currently docked to the space station will fire its thrusters for around 12.5 minutes. There are currently two Dragons docked -- one of which carried crew and one of which carried cargo to the station. The cargo vehicle will perform the boost maneuver. As this is the first time this has been attempted, NASA and SpaceX personnel will observe the event carefully.

Read more