SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon Test Flight (December 8, 2010)

SpaceX’s next launch of satellites for the company’s Starlink broadband network — planned in the final days of 2019 — will carry one spacecraft with an experimental coating designed to make it less reflective in orbit, a first step in assuaging concerns from scientists who say the deployment of thousands more Starlink stations would impede some astronomical observations.

The Nusantara Lima satellite is designed to augment communications in the region alongside Indonesia’s Satria satellite, which launched in June 2023. SpaceX is targeting liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 UTC).

After scrubbing a launch attempt Friday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday on a mission to send communications satellites from OneWeb and Iridium into polar orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Liftoff occurred at 6:16 a.m. PDT (9:16 a.m. EDT; 1316 UTC).