CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — After dealing with some poor weather, SpaceX was able to launch more than 20 Starlink satellites on Wednesday night.

What You Need To Know

  • The Falcon 9 rocket left from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Sending up the Starlink 6-61 mission was a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX.

For Wednesday's launch, the liftoff happened at 5:47 p.m. ET, but the mission had backup opportunities available until 9:23 p.m. ET., SpaceX stated.

The 45th Weather Squadron gave an 85% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule.

Find out more about the weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch.

The launch window was also going to be Monday at 6:40 p.m. ET, but it was pushed back to 7:38 p.m. ET, before being scrapped all together. There is no official word as to why that happened.

For Tuesday's attempt, the launch window opened at 6:56 p.m. ET and was supposed to close at 10:14 p.m. ET. However, unfavorable recovery conditions forced a scrub on Tuesday night.

Taking off

Old Falcon 9’s first-stage booster for this mission, B1073, has seen 17 missions before this launch. And one of these missions includes ispace — a private Japanese space company — and NASA’s lunar mission.

After the stage separation, it landed on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

The Starlink company, owned by SpaceX, will have 23 of its satellites going to low-Earth orbit.

These satellites provide internet service to many parts of the globe.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Dr. Jonathan McDowell has been documenting Starlink satellites.

Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:

  • 6,473 are in orbit
  • 6,150 are in operational orbit

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