Aug. 11 (UPI) — SpaceX unveiled a Falcon 9 rocket topped with two communications satellites for Norway’s Arctic satellite broadband project from California on Sunday, hours after canceling a Starlink orbit launch at the last minute in Florida.
SpaceX later showed the deployment of the two satellites and the return to Earth of the first-stage booster, which landed on the Of Course I Still Love You drone parked in the Pacific Ocean.
About a day earlier and across the United States, SpaceX canceled the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 3nineA at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, just 46 seconds before the planned liftoff, the company announced.
“The vehicle and payload are in intelligent condition and the groups are ready for a release attempt on Monday, August 12,” SpaceX said in an article in X.
The launch was scheduled to carry the next in a series of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Sunday, and moved into the next launch window on Monday.
SpaceX has introduced about 80 rockets so far this year and more are on the horizon. The California government has approved an increase in the number of missions taking off from Vandenberg, but has imposed certain conditions. Among the conditions, SpaceX will have to force the reinforcement of wildlife surveillance, locate tactics to limit the effects of the launches of emitted sonic booms and support the prices of debris that falls into the ocean.