Update 4:00 p.m. EST: SpaceX is standing down from a launch attempt Wednesday night due to “unfavorable weather conditions in the Atlantic Ocean.”
SpaceX is standing down from a launch attempt of the Starlink 6-34 mission onboard its Falcon 9 rocket. It comes less than a day after they had to scrub the launch at the T-1 minute mark due to strong, ground-level winds at Cape Canaveral.
The Tuesday night scrub of the Falcon 9 came within an hour of announcing the delay of the Falcon Heavy launch for the U.S. military. It had planned the launch Monday night from nearby pad 39A.
U.S. Space Force meteorologists at the 45th Weather Squadron said showed a dismal weather outlook for the Starlink mission launch window. The forecast showed only a 20 percent chance of favorable launch weather Wednesday night and 10 percent for the 24-hour back-up on Thursday.
The Falcon 9 booster for Tuesday’s Starlink 6-34 mission, tail number B1081, was set to make its third flight. It previously flew two missions for NASA, one carrying Dragon Endurance in August with a four-member crew to the International Space Station and the other being a Cargo Dragon on a space station resupply mission 32 days ago in November.
SpaceX said they are monitoring the weather and will request a new launch date from the Eastern Range once things clear up. A customer mission, Ozone-3 satellite, is also waiting in the wings. It was waiting for the Starlink 6-34 mission to launch before they got their turn.
With a delay likely to Friday at the earliest for the Starlink launch, Ovzon will have to wait until next week at the earliest to fly. NASA and SpaceX are also watching the weather around Florida to determine when they can safely undock a Cargo Dragon spacecraft and bring it back down to Earth. That operation was delayed to no earlier than Friday to try and avoid poor weather.
