SpaceX is going to wait another day to launch its fifth set of Starlink internet satellites to further evaluate a valve component in the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage.
The company announced the delay late Saturday afternoon. SpaceX was previously scheduled to launch Sunday at 10:25 a.m., but will now opt to launch Monday at 10:05 a.m. instead, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s launch complex 40.
This is the second delay for the mission this week — the first was due to bad weather.
The payload for the launch is SpaceX’s own: A set of 60 satellites from the company’s satellite constellation called Starlink. SpaceX has already had four Starlink launches since May 2019, sending 240 satellites to low-Earth orbit.
This next launch would be just the next step in what is expected to about 20 launches this year to keep up with SpaceX’s ambitious goal of having a total of more than 1,500 Starlinks orbiting the Earth by the close of 2020.
The aim of the program is to provide high-speed broadband internet at a lower cost to the entire globe.
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