CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Despite a couple of delays, SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-60 mission on Tuesday morning.  

What You Need To Know

  • SpaceX sent off the Starlink 6-60 mission

  • It happened at Space Launch Complex 40

The Falcon 9 rocket sent up Starlink 6-60 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX. 

The launch time was at 10:24 a.m. ET. 

The launch window was supposed to start at 7:30 a.m. ET, but a hold was put in place for the launch early Tuesday morning.

This is not the first time this mission has not launched as scheduled.

SpaceX did not state why it scrubbed its Memorial Day launch, which was originally set to go up at 7:30 a.m. ET, then it pushed the lift off to 10:20 a.m. ET, then 10:56 a.m. ET and finally at 11:29 a.m. ET before canceling the Memorial Day mission all together. 

For Tuesday's launch, the 45th Weather Squadron gave a 90% to 85% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule.

Going up

This will be the 10th mission for the Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1078. The nine missions it has launched are quite impressive:

  1. Crew-6
  2. SES O3b mPOWER
  3. USSF-124 mission
  4. Starlink 6-4
  5. Starlink 6-8
  6. Starlink 6-16
  7. Starlink 6-31
  8. Starlink 6-46
  9. Starlink 6-53

After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

The 23 satellites will be heading to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands already there.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Dr. Jonathan McDowell has been tracking Starlink satellites. The Starlink company is owned by SpaceX.

Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:

  • 6,055 are in orbit
  • 5,232 are in operational orbit

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