Can you see the next rocket launch from Washington?
Washington is 740 miles north-northeast of Cape Canaveral. At dawn or dusk, rockets from Cape Canaveral that fly northeast can rise about 16° above the horizon to the south-southwest. Launches from Wallops Island are close enough to see in daylight and rise about 18° above the horizon to the southeast.
Next launch you can see
Bandwagon 5 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Falcon 9 · Cape Canaveral SFS, FL ·
Look south-southwest, partway up the sky, about four minutes after liftoff. Sunlit exhaust should glow against a dark sky for about five minutes, drifting east-southeast.
Liftoff in—
16° up, southeast · 400 mi away
Upcoming launches
Schedule as of
1 launches are estimated to be visible from Washington, DC; 1 more need a launch time before visibility can be estimated.
9 more launches are too far away to see
- USSF-481 · Falcon 9 · · Vandenberg SFB, CA, 2,410 mi
- Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) · H3-24 · · Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, 7,320 mi
- Starlink Group 15-15 · Falcon 9 · · Vandenberg SFB, CA, 2,410 mi
- We're Not Hawking Around (3x HawkEye 360) · Electron · · Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, 8,540 mi
- Starlink Group 15-16 · Falcon 9 · · Vandenberg SFB, CA, 2,410 mi
- The Sea God Surveys (iQPS Launch 9) · Electron · · Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, 8,540 mi
- The Mountain God Rises (iQPS Launch 10) · Electron · · Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, 8,540 mi
- Amazon Leo (LE-04) · Ariane 64 · · Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, 2,780 mi
- Progress MS-36 (97P) · Soyuz 2.1b · · Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan, 6,080 mi
Launch viewing questions
Can you see a rocket launch from Washington?
Washington is 740 miles north-northeast of Cape Canaveral. At dawn or dusk, rockets from Cape Canaveral that fly northeast can rise about 16° above the horizon to the south-southwest. Launches from Wallops Island are close enough to see in daylight and rise about 18° above the horizon to the southeast. Twilight launches are the easiest to spot; daytime launches far from the pad are usually too faint.
How far away can you see a rocket launch?
Farther than most people expect. In daylight a rocket is hard to pick out beyond about 125 miles. After dark its engine stays visible for several hundred miles, and at dawn or dusk sunlit exhaust can glow across 1,000 miles or more, which is how Florida launches are seen across Georgia and the Carolinas.
What is a rocket launch “jellyfish”?
When a rocket flies shortly before sunrise or after sunset, your sky is dark but the rocket, 100 miles up, is still in sunlight. Its exhaust expands in the thin air and glows, spreading into a bright, jellyfish-shaped plume. These twilight launches are the most visible of all.
Which way should I look?
Toward the launch site first. The rocket appears a minute or two after liftoff, once it climbs above your horizon, then tracks along its flight path. The sky view on this page shows that path, the time and the height above the horizon from your ZIP code; a fist held at arm’s length covers about 10°.
Why does a launch say it is not visible?
Either it stays below your horizon from where you are, or the sky will be too bright to pick it out. Trees, buildings, hills, clouds and haze can also hide a rocket that is low on the horizon, so a high, open spot facing the right direction helps.
How accurate are these estimates?
They are a guide to where to look, not a promise. We place your ZIP code at the center of its Census ZIP area, fly a typical Falcon 9-class ascent along the usual heading for the mission’s orbit, and check every five seconds whether the rocket is above your horizon and bright enough to stand out. Real trajectories, weather and terrain are not modelled.
How often is the launch schedule updated?
We check Launch Library 2, a community-maintained schedule from The Space Devs, every 30 minutes. Launch times often slip by minutes or days, so check again on launch day.
Sources: Launch Library 2 (launch times and pads) · U.S. Census Bureau ZIP areas (locations)