Rocket launches
Upcoming launches from Launch Library 2 are pad markers with live countdowns and status. The view follows the next one.
For Starlink missions, SpaceX's own pre-launch orbit prediction (via CelesTrak) drives a flight you can watch: an approximate ascent, the coast on the predicted orbit, and deployment at the predicted time.
Coming launches
- Electron · The Sea God Surveys (iQPS Launch 9)Rocket Lab · Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand · Go for Launch
- Kinetica 2 · SpaceSail Polar Group TBD?CAS Space · Launch Area 140, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China · Go for Launch
- Falcon 9 Block 5 · USSF-432SpaceX · Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA · Go for Launch
- Mir · Demo FlightAgency for Defense Development · ADD Offshore launch platform, Sea Launch · To Be Confirmed
- Ceres-2 · Unknown PayloadGalactic Energy · Launch Area 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China · To Be Confirmed
- Long March 2C · Unknown PayloadChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation · Launch Complex 3 (LC-3/LA-1), Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China · Go for Launch
- Long March 12 · SatNet LEO Group TBD?China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation · Commercial LC-2, Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China · Go for Launch
- Falcon 9 Block 5 · Starlink Group 15-21SpaceX · Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA · Go for Launch
- Electron · The Mountain God Rises (iQPS Launch 10)Rocket Lab · Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand · To Be Determined
- Falcon 9 Block 5 · USSF-xxx ("R-5")SpaceX · Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA · To Be Confirmed
From Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs), read every hour.
How to read it
Each upcoming launch is a marker on its pad with a countdown and its status, from Launch Library 2, read every hour and every 5 minutes as liftoff nears, so holds and scrubs show up. J follows the next launch again after you’ve looked away, Shift+J previews it from T−1 minute at 10× speed, and U turns launches off and on.
For Starlink missions SpaceX gives CelesTrak its predicted orbit and deployment time before launch, and that drives the flight: an ascent of about 8½ minutes, synthesized to end on the predicted orbit at the right speed, then the coast, and deployment at the predicted moment, with the camera staying 30 minutes. If the launch slips to a backup opportunity, that opportunity’s prediction is used. A launch with no prediction gets a countdown and an “in flight, no trajectory data” marker on its pad, never an invented path.
Questions
When is the next rocket launch?
This view opens on it, with a live countdown. Click any pad marker for its clock, status, target orbit, provider, pad and NET (no earlier than: the earliest time it may fly), and its altitude and speed once it’s in flight.
Is the rocket’s position real?
In part. No launch provider publishes live telemetry (the speed and altitude in a webcast are burned into the video), so the ascent is an approximation of a typical Falcon 9 and is labeled as one. The coast and deployment follow SpaceX’s own predicted orbit.
Why did the launch time change?
Launch Library 2 updates the NET as providers announce slips, holds and scrubs. Near T−0 the app re-reads that launch every 5 minutes and moves to the new time.
Sources
The same view as a link: livex.earth/?clouds=0&radar=0&imerg=0&sats=off&launches=1&aurora=0&storms=0&severe=0&fires=0&quakes=0&lightning=0&events=0&snow=0&tsunami=0&view=track&track=launch
Drag to look around, scroll to zoom. Settings live in the URL, so any view can be shared.
view | fixed · sunrel · orbit · moon · track |
track | what to follow: iss, tiangong, satgus (Mark Rober's Space Selfie satellite), launch, sunrise, moonrise |
lat, lon | viewer position (fixed) or offset from the subsolar point (sunrel) |
period, inc | orbit period (hours) and inclination (°) |
dist | viewer distance in Earth radii; 0 = orthographic |
mag, rot | size and rotation (°) |
wait | seconds between redraws (default 60) |
time, speed | ISO start time; clock multiplier |
clouds, lights, grid, markers, label | 0 or 1 |
borders | Country borders (Natural Earth), the disputed and undefined ones dashed, and once zoomed in, the countries’ names and the states’ and provinces’ lines, off by default (key B) |
terminator | The day–night line (Sun on the horizon), with the twilight band’s edges dashed: the Sun 6° up and 6° down, off by default (key Z) |
stars | 1, 0, or photo (dimmed like a camera exposed for sunlit Earth) |
sats | all (Starlink + named), featured, or 0 |
aurora, storms, fires, quakes | 0 hides that layer (keys A H F E) |
buoys, buoy | Buoys on the globe, off by default (key Shift+B); buoy=46026 opens that buoy’s window. Click a buoy to open it. |
meteors | The last day’s meteors (Global Meteor Network), recent fireballs and the coming close approaches (NASA/JPL), off by default (key Shift+M) |
iono | Ionosphere wash: tec electron content (GloTEC), drap HF radio absorption (D-RAP), or 0 (key Shift+I) |
lightning, events, snow | lightning, GDACS floods/wildfires/eruptions with NASA's flood map and USGS's US volcano alert levels, snow and ice (keys L D I) |
sst | Sea temperature: temp, anomaly (El Niño, marine heatwaves; 1 means this), or 0 (key O) |
lst | Land surface temperature (VIIRS, MODIS): auto the afternoon’s by day and the night’s by night (1 means this), day, night, or 0 (key Shift+K) |
soil | Soil moisture (SMAP L4): surface the top 5 cm (1 means this), root the root zone to 1 m, or 0 (key Shift+W) |
chl | Chlorophyll-a (MODIS Aqua, Terra), the last eight days: 1 or 0 (key Shift+O; off by default) |
aerosol | Aerosols: aod VIIRS optical depth (1 means this), index the OMPS UV aerosol index, smoke and dust, or 0 (key Shift+Y; off by default) |
waves, wavesrc | Wave height and direction (NOAA GFS-Wave, WAVEWATCH III) as trails that travel with the waves, coloured by height: 1 or 0 (off by default); folder holding its latest.json |
currents, currentsrc | Ocean surface currents (NASA OSCAR, a daily mean, two or three days behind) as trails carried by them, coloured by speed: 1 or 0 (off by default; key Q cycles waves → currents → both → off); folder holding its latest.json |
coral, coralsrc | Coral bleaching heat stress (NOAA Coral Reef Watch degree heating weeks), drawn within 35° of the equator: 1 or 0 (key Shift+R; off by default); folder holding its latest.json |
ash | volcanic ash: EUMETSAT's Ash RGB, and GDACS's eruptions in a window (key Shift+A; off by default) |
radar, smoke, tsunami | RainViewer radar, NOAA HMS smoke, NOAA tsunami alerts (keys R Y Shift+T) |
imagery | live GOES and MTG pictures by day, daily yesterday’s VIIRS when zoomed in, painted neither; with live or daily, the newest night’s lights when zoomed in (key Shift+P; the older truecolor=0/1 still works) |
severe | Severe weather: NWS warning polygons and the SPC day-1 outlook (US), MeteoAlarm's warnings (Europe) (key X) |
imerg | With the radar, satellite rain where there’s no radar: EUMETSAT H SAF (MTG) over Europe and Africa, NASA IMERG elsewhere (R’s middle step turns it off) |
relief | terrain lit by the real Sun, from NOAA ETOPO 2022 (key Shift+E); 0 shows NASA's fixed shaded relief |
reliefscale | terrain relief strength, 0.1–5 (default 1) |
isslive | NASA ISS telemetry panel: track (while tracking the ISS), 1 (always) or 0 (key Shift+L) |
isscam | 1 opens the camera in the ISS telemetry: the station from 120 m above, its solar arrays posed from the live telemetry, and the Earth below (the wheel zooms it, 30–120°) |
firehours | show fires detected within this many hours, 1–24 (default 12) |
launches | 0 hides launch mode (key U) |
bodies, bodyscale | Sun and Moon on/off; enlarge their discs (1 = true size) |
fps | 1 shows the frame-rate display (key ~) |
feeds | 1 shows the data-feeds dashboard: each source's last update and next check (key Shift+U) |
cloudsrc, satsrc | folders holding each latest.json |
Weather data by RainViewer