SpaceX has pushed the launch of its next big batch of Starlink internet satellites back two days, to Thursday (Sept. 3).
A Falcon 9 rocket had been scheduled to loft the 60 Starlink satellites on Tuesday morning (Sept. 1) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But those plans have changed, SpaceX representatives announced today (Aug. 31).
“Now targeting Thursday, September 3 at 8:46 a.m. EDT for launch of Starlink from Launch Complex 39A, pending Range acceptance — team is using additional time for data review,” SpaceX said via Twitter this afternoon. (“Range” refers to the Eastern Range, the U.S. Space Force entity that oversees launches from the East Coast.)
Now targeting Thursday, September 3 at 8:46 a.m. EDT for launch of Starlink from Launch Complex 39A, pending Range acceptance — team is using additional time for data reviewAugust 31, 2020
SpaceX will attempt to land the Falcon 9 first stage on a ship at sea during Thursday’s Starlink mission. You can watch all of Thursday’s action live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company.
SpaceX has already launched 600 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. But the constellation will get far bigger than that, if things go according to plan: SpaceX has approval to loft 12,000 Starlink spacecraft and has applied for permission to launch about 30,000 more on top of that.
The upcoming Starlink launch was originally targeted for Sunday (Aug. 30), but bad weather scuttled that attempt.
Source: Space.com