Published 17:49 IST, March 1st 2021
Falcon 9 launch called-off last minute, Starlink satellites to wait until March 1
SpaceX on Sunday called-off the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, which was scheduled to deploy 60 Starlink satellites into the Earth's orbit.
- Science News
- 2 min read
SpaceX on Sunday called-off the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, which was scheduled to deploy 60 Starlink satellites into the Earth's orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket, which was set to lift-off from Launch Complex (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center, auto-aborted at T-1 minutes 24 seconds. SpaceX has said that it is now targeting March 1 for the launch of the Starlink satellites. SpaceX didn't mention the exact reason for the delay, but it is the latest roadblock that the mission has faced in the past couple of weeks.
The Falcon 9 rocket was initially scheduled to fly earlier in February, but the mission was cancelled due to bad weather and hardware issues. The mission, called Starlink 17, will now fly on March 1. If unsuccessful on Monday, the next immediate window is on March 2 at 8:15 am EST to launch the satellites into space. The last SpaceX rocket carrying Starlink satellites flew into space on February 16. Monday's launch will be the sixth Starlink mission for the company this year and the 20th Starlink mission overall.
Previously, the Elon Musk organization had launched 60 Starlink satellites into space making it more than 1000 satellites into the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The new satellites are also said to be equipped with a new deployable 'sun visor system' which is created to block reflections of sunlight off of their antenna surfaces. This is also the reason why they are denoted as "Astronomy-friendly satellites".
What do Starlink satellites do?
The 60 Starlink satellites will join the constellation in space that SpaceX has sent in the last couple of years. SpaceX aims to deliver high-speed broadband internet, especially to locations where access has been unreliable or completely unavailable. The satellites are also low latency, meaning they are 60 times closer to Earth than traditional satellites, which allows sending of data from one point to another in a very short time.
Updated 17:46 IST, March 1st 2021