Science

SpaceX cancels the launch attempt of 28 Starlink satellites utilizing a rocket on a record-setting 28th flight.

SpaceX had to scrub its nighttime launch of another 28 Starlink satellites. The corporation is now planning Monday night, May 12, to launch its Falcon 9 launcher that will be making a record-breaking 28th mission.

Liftoff of fleet-leading first-stage booster 1067 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is slated for 11:36 p.m. EDT (0336 UTC). It will be the 100th launch of a single-stick Falcon 9 rocket from this site.

Spaceflight Now will offer live coverage commencing approximately one hour prior to liftoff.

On Saturday, the 45th Weather Squadron estimated a 50 percent likelihood for good weather during the launch window. Meteorologists noted issues with cloud cover overnight; storms are forecast to start Sunday afternoon and evening.

“Hi-res models suggest that while the bulk of convection will have waned around the Spaceport by the window opening late Sunday night, there is a higher probability of lingering showers and storms through the window due to the proximity of the upper-level system and breezy onshore flow,” launch weather officers wrote.

“The cumulus cloud threat will be in addition to the persistent threat of multilayered clouds moving across the spaceport that are a combination of thick cloud layers and anvil clouds.”

Weather looks to have been the limiting factor to launch Monday morning. SpaceX did not publish a comment on the cause for the scrub.

When it does launch, a little more than eight minutes after liftoff, SpaceX plans to land B1067 on its drone ship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ positioned in the Atlantic Ocean to the east of the Bahamas.

If everything goes to plan, this would be the 120th successful landing for this drone ship and the 445th booster landing to date for SpaceX.

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