San Francisco: SpaceX on Wednesday postponed the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first 60 Starlink Internet communications satellites due to high winds.
“Standing down today due to excess upper level winds. Teams are working toward tomorrow’s backup launch window, which opens at 10.30 p.m. EDT,” SpaceX said in a tweet.
The launch will also feature a landing attempt by the Falcon 9’s first stage on one of SpaceX’s drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean, Space.com reported.
Starlink is designed to provide high-speed Internet access to areas of the planet where broadband is rare, spotty or non-existent.
SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to put nearly 11,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit between now and the mid-2020s,
The company is one of several, including Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, which are building these so called “constellations” of interconnected satellites to deliver high speed Internet from space.
This first launch is really just a small part of a long process, and that’s provided everything goes according to plan, according to the Engadget.
–IANS
