Features

One timeline of days

The past is to the left and the future to the right. Each day is a stack of videos and launches, and Launch Today opens on today, with a Today button to come back to it. Dates and times are in your device's time zone. A launch that only has a rough date so far, such as a week, a month or a quarter, waits in an Unconfirmed column at the end rather than being pinned to a made-up day.

Today's stack starts with replays of launches that have already flown (plus videos you've watched today), then anything live, then the round-the-clock launch-pad cameras and space TV, then launches still to come. Videos you watch show up on the day you watched them.

When you move to a day, Launch Today picks its headline launch for you: a launch that's live right now first; then, on today, an upcoming Starship, Blue Origin or SLS/Artemis launch, even before its broadcast starts; then the day's headline rocket (Starship, Blue Origin, SLS/Artemis, then heavy-lifters such as Falcon Heavy, Vulcan, Ariane 6 or Long March 5). Otherwise it picks the first one in the stack.

Launch Today on iPhone: a strip of dates along the top and the selected day's launch videos below
On iPhone, a strip of dates sits above the selected day's videos.

Where the video comes from

Launch times, providers, pads and mission descriptions come from The Space Devs' worldwide Launch Library, together with SpaceX's own mission list.

A schedule alone never makes anything “live”. A video is labelled live only when its publisher marks it live, and Launch Today also checks that the stream is actually advancing. When it can't check (some YouTube streams block this), the card says “Live on YouTube” instead. Launch Today checks more often as liftoff gets close.

Starting at liftoff

When Launch Today finds the moment of liftoff (T−0) in a recording, it remembers it. It then plays that replay from 15 seconds before liftoff, unless you've already started watching it.

To find T−0 it samples frames across a recording in the background and reads the on-screen countdown clock with Apple's text recognition, on your device. A liftoff time is only accepted when several clock readings before and after liftoff agree with each other and with the video's own timing, and the picture isn't a frozen still around liftoff. Liftoff times it finds are saved to your iCloud so your other devices can skip the search. Well-verified times are also shared (only the video and the timing), so other people's devices can check them instead of searching from scratch. See Privacy.

For a recording without a readable clock, Launch Today can look for the moment of ignition in the picture instead. Those start times are labelled Visual estimate.

This search runs only while you're browsing, never while a video plays. It works through today first, then earlier days, headline rockets first, back as far as you choose in Settings: one day, one week (the standard) or one month. A recording it hasn't analysed yet plays from the beginning, or from where you left off.

Play it your way

On Apple TV, Mac and Vision Pro, choose a video to play it. On iPhone and iPad, tapping a video opens its Playback choices. Anywhere, you can hold a video to see them (on Apple TV, hold the Select button; on a Mac you can also right-click and pick Playback choices…):

No offset
From the start, or from where you stopped watching. Live streams open at the live moment.
T−15s
15 seconds before liftoff.
T−60s
A minute before liftoff.

T−15s and T−60s appear once Launch Today knows the recording's liftoff time.

Most videos can play either in Launch Today's own player (Apple's video player) or in the app they come from. With Use YouTube on, YouTube videos open in the YouTube app on Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro if it's installed (otherwise in Launch Today's player), and in your web browser on a Mac. On iPhone, iPad and Mac you can also open X broadcasts in the X app. When Launch Today knows the liftoff time of a YouTube video, it can ask YouTube to start 15 or 60 seconds before liftoff; the X app doesn't take a start time.

Launch Today's Playback choices on a Mac: rows for Launch Today and YouTube, columns for No offset, T−15s and T−60s
Playback choices: who plays it, and how close to liftoff.

Bookmarks and channels

Bookmark a launch to keep it, with its videos, after it has dropped off the timeline. Whenever you have a bookmark, a bookmark button appears in the top bar after Settings and Activity. Bookmarks are kept on this device.

Hide channel hides a publisher's videos on every day (SpaceX's own coverage can't be hidden). Hidden channels are listed in Settings, where you can show them again.

See what it's doing

The Activity button opens a running log of what Launch Today is checking in the background: new launches, live streams, clock readings, liftoff times it has found, and what it rejected and why.

On each device

Apple TV
Left and right move between days, up and down through a day's videos. Up from the top reaches Today, Settings and Activity. Press Select to play, hold it for Playback choices, and press Back to leave a video.
iPhone
A strip of dates above one column of videos, in portrait or landscape. Tap a video to open its playback choices right under it; touch and hold to open the same choices in a separate sheet.
iPad
In a narrow window, the iPhone layout. Otherwise several whole days side by side, each under its own date.
Mac
Several days side by side. ← and → move between days, ↑ and ↓ through videos, Return plays and Escape leaves. View › Enter Full Screen for the big picture.
Apple Vision Pro
The timeline in a window you can place and resize.
Launch Today on iPad in landscape: Thursday, today and Monday side by side, each a column of launch videos
On iPad, every column is a whole day.
Launch Today on Apple TV: today's launch videos in a column, the next days beside it, and the globe
Launch Today on Apple TV.

Settings