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SpaceX pushes through weather for Sunday launch after Saturday scrub

SpaceX was able to send up its next batch of Starlink satellites Sunday night from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after poor weather scrubbed several chances on Saturday.

A Falcon 9 carrying 22 of the broadband satellites lifted off at 8:50 p.m. from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 having passed over an earlier 7:09 p.m. opportunity because of continuing weather woes the plagued Saturday’s attempts.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/pOFdM1l6Yv

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2023

The first-stage booster for the mission made its sixth flight and made another recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.

It was the 36th orbital launch from the Space Coast in 2023, with all but two coming from SpaceX.

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/VBloEKEbcG

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2023

Including its California missions, this was SpaceX’s 49th orbital launch among its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets for the year.

Of those, it’s the 26th dedicated to Starlink this year, and 96th since the growing constellation’s first operational deployment in 2019, according to statistics tracked by astronomer Jonathan McDowell. To date, the company has already launched more than 4,800 satellites with an approval from the Federal Communications Commission to up that to 7,500.

Most of those are a smaller version of the satellite that SpaceX was able to send up in batches of more than 50 at a time. The latest versions are larger, so will only go up in batches of around 20-22. An even larger version is planned for when SpaceX gets its in-development Starship and Super Heavy rocket operational.