SpaceX gears up again for its first Starlink satellite launch after winds force delay

SpaceX is resetting the countdown to put two of its prototype Starlink broadband satellites and a Spanish radar imaging satellite into orbit on Thursday, a day after concerns about upper-level winds forced a postponement.

Wednesday’s scrub, based on data from weather balloons, came only about 10 minutes before SpaceX’s Falcon 9 was due to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

“High-altitude wind shear data shows a probable 2 percent load exceedance,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explained in a tweet about the no-go decision. “Small, but better to be paranoid.”

The launch was rescheduled for 6:17 a.m. PT Thursday. Because the opportunity for liftoff is instantaneous, SpaceX has to have everything go right, to the second.

Assuming all systems are go, SpaceX will fire up a webcast of the proceedings about 15 minutes before launch.

Putting Hisdesat’s Paz spacecraft into orbit is the primary objective for this mission. It’s designed to follow the same orbit as Europe’s TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X radar satellites, providing high-resolution radar coverage for government and commercial applications over the next five and a half years.

But it’s the secondary objectives that are really interesting. Riding along with Paz are the first two prototypes for what’s expected to become a SpaceX constellation of thousands of satellites. The constellation, known as Starlink, is designed to provide low-cost, low-latency broadband internet service from low Earth orbit.

Musk said Starlink would provide connectivity for those “least served” by currently available networks. “If anyone is curious, the name was inspired by ‘The Fault in Our Stars,'” he said in a tweet, referring to a romantic novel written by John Green.

SpaceX’s team in Redmond, Wash., has been playing a lead role in developing the hardware and the satellite communications technology for Starlink.

Source: Yahoo News