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SpaceX canceled the launch of its upcoming fleet of Starlink satellites on Sunday, November 22, delaying a potentially record-breaking flight for the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket.
A Falcon 9 rocket was about to make its seventh launch (a record for the reusable booster) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida when SpaceX cleared the mission. Liftoff was scheduled for 9:56 p.m. EST (0256 GMT) to orbit 60 Starlink Internet satellites.
“Standing since today’s launch of Starlink,” SpaceX said in an update on Twitter. “The rocket and payload are healthy; teams will use more time to complete data reviews and are now working on a backup opportunity on Monday, November 23 at 9:34 pm, but keeping an eye on recovery conditions. “
Related: See the evolution of SpaceX rockets in pictures
SpaceX was just over 30 minutes from launch when the mission was cleaned up.
“Here, here, here,” said SpaceX’s launch director in a live audio webcast from Mission Control. “We are withdrawing from today’s attempt for additional mission assurance.”
Sunday’s launch attempt followed a successful Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday. This mission launched the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich ocean mapping satellite for NASA and the European Space Agency, and landed shortly after.
The scheduled launch today would have marked SpaceX’s 23rd launch in 2020 and the 100th historic flight of a Falcon 9 rocket. It is also SpaceX’s 16th Starlink mission to build a massive constellation of high-speed Internet satellites in orbit. .
The Falcon 9 first stage of this flight was first launched in September 2018, when it put the Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite into orbit. It flew again in January 2019 to orbit 10 Iridium Next satellites, and then four more times this year on different Starlink missions.
Following today’s scheduled launch, the booster was expected to return to Earth to land on SpaceX’s “Of Course, I Still Love You” drone spacecraft in the Atlantic Ocean. The weather conditions of this anticipated recovery could impact plans for another launch attempt on Monday.
SpaceX’s current Falcon 9 rockets, called the Block 5 series, are designed to fly at least 10 times, if not more, the company said.
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow us on @Spacedotcom and Facebook and Instagram.
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