CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Despite a number of delays and a lot of fog, SpaceX launched more than 20 Starlink satellites early Tuesday morning.
What You Need To Know
- SpaceX will send off the Starlink 12-3 mission
- It will take off from Space Launch Complex 40
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket sent off Starlink 12-3 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX.
Liftoff took place at 5:15 a.m. ET, with the launch window closing at 6:24 a.m. ET.
Originally, the mission was going to takeoff on Monday at 3:54 a.m. ET. but it was pushed back to 5:54 a.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 7:42 a.m. ET. Then it was pushed back again for 3:37 a.m. ET, Tuesday.
However, SpaceX scrubbed the launch and rescheduled it for Tuesday. No reason was given for the delays.
For Tuesday's launch, the 45th Weather Squadron gave a 95% chance of good liftoff conditions, with no weather concerns, even with the foggy conditions
Find out more about the weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch.
If the launch was scrubbed, the next attempt would have been at 2:59 a.m. ET, Wednesday.
Going up
This is the 21st mission for the Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1069. It has had 20 missions before this launch:
- CRS-24
- Eutelsate Hotbird 13F
- SES-18 & 19
- OneWeb
- 16 Starlink missions
After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions that that is in the Atlantic Ocean.
About the mission
The Starlink company’s 21 satellites will travel to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands of their brothers and sisters there.
And 13 of those have direct-to-cell capabilities, explained SpaceX, which owns Starlink.
Once deployed and in their orbit, they will provide internet service to several places on Earth.
Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been recording Starlink satellites.
Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:
- 6,992 are in orbit
- 6,265 are in operational orbit