When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 25 Starlink satellites from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on April 26, 2026. It was SpaceX’s 50th launch of the year. | Credit: SpaceXSpaceX will launch 45 satellites to orbit from California early Sunday morning (May 3), and you can watch the action live.A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday during a 37-minute window that opens at 2:59 a.m. EDT (0659 GMT; 11:59 p.m. PDT on May 2 California time).AdvertisementAdvertisementSpaceX will stream the liftoff live via its website and X account. Coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch.SpaceX calls the mission CAS500-2, after the primary payload going up — the CAS500-2 Earth-observation satellite, which was developed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.South Korea’s CAS500 (“Compact Advanced Satellite 500”) program aims to operate a total of five satellites in low Earth orbit. These spacecraft will gather data for a variety of purposes, from disaster monitoring to crop observation.Two of the satellites have reached orbit to date. CAS500-1 lifted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket in March 2021, and a South Korean Nuri vehicle lofted CAS500-3 in November 2025.AdvertisementAdvertisementAs its name suggests, CAS500-2 was supposed to be the second off the pad. It was booked to fly on a Soyuz in 2022, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of that year sundered the international partnership that led to the deal, putting the satellite in mothballs for a spell.Previous Booster 1071 missionsNROL-87 | NROL-85 | SARah-1 | SWOT | Transporter-8 | Transporter-9 | Transporter-13 | NROL-146 | Bandwagon-2 | NROL-153 | NROL-192 | Transporter-14 | Transporter-15 | 20 Starlink missionsForty-four other satellites are flying along with CAS500-2. They’re a diverse bunch with many different operators — Argotec S.r.l, Exolaunch, Impulso.Space, Loft-EarthDaily, Lynk Global, True Anomaly and Planet Labs, according to SpaceX’s mission description.AdvertisementAdvertisementIf all goes to plan on Sunday morning, the Falcon 9’s first stage will land back at Vandenberg ab …
