SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, enthroned on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Cape Canaveral on May 30 and took two astronauts to the International Space Station on a NASA mission.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
If everything goes as planned, a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida will launch this Saturday, just two weeks after another rocket from the company’s workhorse was sent NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on the International Space Station.
The company launched its historic first launch a few days later with the launch of Starlink satellites. It will now operate its first Starlink carpool and will transport 58 of its own broadband satellites and three Earth observation spaceships for Planet Labs.
The mission will increase the total number of Starlink satellites in Earth orbit to over 500, while increasing Planet’s SkySat fleet to 18. SpaceX’s StarX aims to include tens of thousands of orbiting routers covering the earth for broadband Internet access. SkySats will help Planet Labs develop images of the earth’s surface.
If you make room for carpooling, this is the first series of Starlink satellites with fewer than 60 satellites.
SpaceX announced on Twitter that the launch was postponed from Friday to Saturday at 2:21 p.m. PDT (5:21 a.m.Florida time).
The first stage of Falcon 9 that was used had previously been flown twice, both times during kite cargo missions to the International Space Station.
As soon as the launch’s live feed is available, we’ll embed it here. The stream usually starts about 15 minutes before the start.