KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – Florida is in peak hurricane season with seven system swirling in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, this makes launching rockets from the Space Coast tricky.
SpaceX was targeting Thursday afternoon to launch its 13th batch of Starlink satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket but the company decided to stand down on the attempt to to an issue with the rocket landing site at sea.
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The primary problem for Thursday was Hurricane Sally, currently in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and slowly churning toward the northwest.
SpaceX said officials will announce a new target launch date once confirmed.
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The primary launch weather concerns during Thursday afternoon’s attempt were cloud cover, rain and instability from Hurricane Sally, according to Space Force weather forecasters, and that trend continues on Friday as well.
The company also confirmed one half of the Falcon 9 rocket’s nose cone previously launched two other batches of Starlink satellites.
Elon Musk’s company uses two boats with giant nets to catch the two halves of the rocket nose cone, called fairings. Re-flying this hardware can save around $6 million.
Targeting September 17 at 2:19 p.m. EDT for Falcon 9 launch of 60 Starlink satellites from Launch Complex 39A
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 16, 2020
SpaceX last launched 60 Starlink satellites on Sept. 3, bringing the company’s total to near 700 spacecraft in orbit with the goal of providing high-speed internet to the world.
SpaceX plans to roll out internet service in the U.S. and Canada later this year, according to the Starlink website. Interested customers can sign up for alerts to learn when it will become available in their area.
Check back to ClickOrlando.com/space for updates leading up to launch and watch live at the top of this story.