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- SpaceX’s first Starlink mission in 2021 has been postponed due to bad weather, delaying the launch of 60 internet satellites.
- The launch, first scheduled for Monday morning, will now take place at 8:23 a.m. EST on Tuesday.
- This will be the 17th Starlink mission. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, wants to envelop the Earth with up to 42,000 Internet satellites.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
SpaceX’s first Starlink launch in 2021 has been delayed due to bad weather.
The Falcon 9 rocket, containing 60 Starlink satellites ready to transmit the Internet to Earth, was scheduled to take off at 8:45 a.m. EST on Monday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but “adverse weather conditions in the recovery area” prevented the launch.
It was rescheduled to Tuesday at 8:23 a.m. EST, SpaceX tweeted.
This will be the 17th time SpaceX has sent Starlink satellites into space. Its goal for Starlink is to provide global broadband coverage from 42,000 satellites.
So far, Elon Musk’s aerospace company has more than 1,000 internet satellites in orbit, according to Space.com. The company has already started testing its space Internet service through its “Better Than Nothing” beta, underway in the United States, southern Canada and parts of Europe. Some users report speeds of over 200 megabits per second.
UK regulators have given Starlink the green light, and some users have already received their beta kits.
Once the Falcon 9 has left the Earth’s atmosphere, the first stage of the rocket will take off and land on the “Just Read the Instructions” recovery drone, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.
Read more: Here’s how many millions of Starlink users might need to break even if it loses $ 2,000 for every satellite dish it sells, experts say
Falcon 9 rockets are known for their reusability – this will be the eighth flight for this particular Falcon 9 rocket booster.
The rocket thruster’s most recent launch was on December 13, when it put SiriusXM’s new radio satellite into orbit. The other six missions include the RADARSAT Constellation mission in June 2019, the first Crew Dragon mission in March 2019, and four Starlink missions.
You can watch the Falcon 9 rocket launch via SpaceX.
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