Watch a time-lapse of the Falcon 9 rocket going vertical

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 Starlink 17-37 mission flew on the 60th Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2026. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:50 a.m. PDT (10:50 a.m. EDT / 1450 UTC).

SpaceX scrubbed an attempt to launch a commercial Falcon 9 rocket Sunday less than a minute before liftoff, blaming a sensor issue on the vehicle’s first stage and pushing back the company’s first national security mission for the U.S. government at least 24 hours.