Update for 10 p.m. ET: SpaceX has successfully launched the 10-satellite Iridium-4 mission in a spectacular evening launch. See our launch wrap story with video and photos here: Used SpaceX Rocket Launches 10 Communications Satellites Once Again
Two rockets are scheduled to launch within 1 minute of each other tonight (Dec. 22), and you can catch the back-to-back spaceflight action live.
A Japanese H-2A rocket will lead things off with a liftoff from Tanegashima Space Center at 8:26 p.m. EST Friday (0126 GMT; 1:26 a.m. local Japan time on Dec. 23). One minute later, a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a pre-flown first stage is scheduled to rise from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.
You can watch both launches live here at Space.com , courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and SpaceX, respectively.
The Falcon 9 will carry aloft 10 communications satellites for the Iridium Next commercial constellation, marking the second such mission for the rocket’s first stage: That booster was part of the Falcon 9 that launched 10 Iridium Next satellites this past June .
The communications company Iridium is therefore poised to become the first SpaceX customer ever to fly multiple missions with the same Falcon 9 first stage.
Today’s liftoff will be the last one for this particular first stage, however: SpaceX does not plan to bring it down for a landing, company representatives have said.
To date, SpaceX has landed first stages 20 times during Falcon 9 launches and has reflown four of these landed boosters.
The H-2A, meanwhile, is topped with two JAXA payloads — the Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C) satellite and the Super Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS). GCOM-C will monitor global water circulation and climate change from orbit for at least 10 years; and SLATS will test an efficient ion-engine technology developed to help satellites operate at altitudes below 190 miles (300 kilometers), where air resistance is significant, JAXA officials said.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+ . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook or Google+ . Originally published on Space.com .
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