SpaceX launched a rocket carrying dozens of satellites into orbit just before 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at Cape Canaveral.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off into blue, partly cloudy skies, four days after SpaceX scrubbed a launch Friday with just two seconds until liftoff.
The rocket is sending 60 Starlink satellites to orbit on this 13th Starlink launch. They were scheduled to deploy about an hour after liftoff.
On a previous mission, the first stage of the same Falcon 9 rocket helped launch Crew Dragon’s first flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts on board.
Following stage separation, SpaceX was scheduled to land Falcon 9’s first stage on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
On Friday, SpaceX was forced to scrub the Starlink mission because of technical issues. A launch was scheduled for Saturday and rescheduled for Monday before SpaceX successfully took advantage of a 15-minute launch window Tuesday morning.
The launch problems prompted Elon Musk, founder of the private Hawthorne, Calif.-based company, to plan a visit to deal with the problems.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars.
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