SpaceX plans to launch a space-focused rideshare vehicle today (August 16).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Transporter 11 satellite array is scheduled to launch into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California no earlier than 2:20 p.m. EDT (6:20 p.m. GMT; 11:20 a.m. local time).
SpaceX typically opens the broadcast about five minutes before launch on X, formerly Twitter, where you can follow the event live.
Related: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches two Maxar satellites into space on record-breaking flight (video)
Transporter 11 contains a number of payloads from different companies. For example, one of the payloads is an Nvidia Jetson Orin NX chip. The chip is a well-known graphics processing unit (GPU) for artificial intelligence and edge computing.
The GPU will be shielded with a nanoparticle-enriched polymer made by the Cosmic Shielding Corporation (CSC), a spin-off of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. The university has already conducted a test on the International Space Station, but Transporter 11 will be the first time it shields real hardware during a space mission.
SpaceX has already launched four more missions in the past week, two of which aimed to send more satellites into space for the Starlink mega-constellation.
The Transporter 11 launch is expected to be SpaceX’s 80th launch in 2024, with more than 70% of the satellites dedicated to Starlink.
