As the launch of the Starlink Internet satellites was rescheduled for Wednesday, SpaceX announced that it would be “standing down” to analyze data from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage.
Before it was canceled for a second time, SpaceX had planned to launch the Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 of its Internet satellites from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday at 11:02 p.m. EST.
SpaceX announced that the Tuesday launch had been scrubbed approximately 45 minutes prior.
“Standing down from today’s launch of Starlink to take a closer look at data from second stage; teams are setting up for next launch opportunity, which is tomorrow, January 11 at 7:48 p.m. PT,” SpaceX tweeted.
Due to inclement weather, an earlier launch from California on Monday night was also rescheduled.
From the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday night, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 carrying forty OneWeb Internet satellites.
SpaceX launched its first 2023 rocket last week carrying 114 satellites to provide agricultural, maritime, and radio surveillance services.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 is anticipated to return to Earth in less than nine minutes and will land on the SpaceX droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean if everything goes according to plan for Wednesday’s launch.
A SpaceX mission description says that the 51 new satellites will be put into low-Earth orbit 29 minutes after liftoff.
The planned launch on Wednesday will bring the total number of Starlink satellites in SpaceX’s constellation of Internet communication satellites to 3,717.
In order to expand SpaceX’s Starlink Internet services worldwide, the aerospace manufacturing company owned by billionaire Elon Musk received federal approval to launch 7,500 satellites last month.