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For the second consecutive day, officials were forced to cancel the Starlink 15 mission from SpaceX.
The aerospace company’s Falcon 9 rocket was originally scheduled to launch another 60 Starlink broadband satellites on Wednesday, but bad weather delayed the launch until Thursday.
Twenty-four hours later, things remain quiet at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base’s Launch Complex 40. This time the technical difficulties, not the time, are responsible for the delay.
“SpaceX is forgoing the launch of Starlink to gain additional mission guarantee time and will announce the next launch opportunity as soon as it is confirmed on the range,” SpaceX confirmed on Twitter.
SpaceX is expected to reschedule the launch of Starlink-15 for Friday at noon.
SpaceX fans and members of the media have called October online “Scrubtober” because SpaceX is constantly frustrated by bad weather and launch delays.
If and when SpaceX’s 15th Starlink mission is completed, the company’s broadband constellation will grow by 60 satellites. Since the beginning of October, SpaceX has now put 180 Starlink satellites into orbit.
SpaceX completed its 14th Starlink mission on Sunday. With two launches this week, SpaceX now has over 800 broadband satellites in orbit.
Earlier this month, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the Starlink constellation had grown large enough to begin beta testing of the internet services system in both the United States and southern Canada.
SpaceX has already provided Starlink Internet services to rescuers in bushfire affected areas in Washington State.
The Hoh tribe of Washington also uses the Internet service to provide online education and telemedicine services to its members.
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