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SpaceX has postponed the launch of 21 new Starlink satellites until early Tuesday due to the effects of Hurricane Hillary in the Pacific Ocean. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday at 2:04 a.m. EDT. This launch was originally scheduled for August 17 but was delayed due to hurricane impacts.

Hurricane Hillary is currently a powerful Category 4 storm located about 400 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is expected to move towards the western coast of Baja Mexico and reach southern California on Sunday night. The impact of the hurricane on missile recovery operations in the Pacific led to a delay of another four days.

SpaceX plans to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster by landing it on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 8 minutes after launch. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth on Tuesday morning and land on SpaceX’s Unmanned Ship (Of Course I Still Love You). This will be the 15th launch and landing of this booster.

This mission was originally scheduled for August 17, following a previous Starlink launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force station on August 16. However, SpaceX delayed the launch multiple times due to the expected impact of Hurricane Hillary on recovery operations.

SpaceX has launched around 5,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) to date, with plans for a significant increase. The company has permission to deploy 12,000 Starlink satellites and has applied for approval to fly an additional 30,000 spacecraft.

More information about the launch and live coverage can be found on SpaceX’s website.

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