How to watch SpaceX launch 60 more Starlink satellites Tuesday – CNET

The Falcon 9 rocket booster that sent NASA astronauts to the International Space Station in May is set to get recycled again Tuesday following Monday’s scrubbed launch. SpaceX hopes to send 60 more Starlink satellites to orbit atop its column of fire.  

The launch, originally scheduled for September, has been postponed multiple times due to weather, including twice last week due to heavy clouds in one case and an aberrant ground sensor reading in another. Monday’s scrub was yet again blamed on weather. SpaceX tweeted that it’s planning for 7:29 a.m. ET (4:29 a.m. PT) Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a 70 percent chance of “favorable” weather. You can follow the launch on the livestream below. 

Elon Musk’s trademark reusable rocket will be making its third flight when it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center. This specific unit sent astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to orbit in May and then launched a South Korean satellite in July. So far, SpaceX has managed to launch and land the same rocket up to six times. 

Musk has expressed his clear frustration with the series of scrubs, after a separate SpaceX mission to launch a GPS satellite for the US Space Force was also delayed.

“We will need to make a lot of improvements to have a chance of completing 48 launches next year!” Musk tweeted Friday.

When the Starlink launch finally gets off the ground, it should be fairly routine. It will be the 13th Starlink mission so far, and SpaceX is planning on dozens more as it grows its broadband mega-constellation.  

One half of the nose cone, or fairing, atop the rocket has also seen two previous flights, both of them earlier Starlink missions. 

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Following the launch and separation of the rocket’s second stage and payload, the first-stage booster will again return to Earth to land on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.