Update May 12, 2 a.m. EDT: SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt and is now targeting Monday night for liftoff.
SpaceX had to scrub its overnight launch of another 28 Starlink satellites. The company is now targeting Monday night, May 12, to launch its Falcon 9 booster that will be making a record-breaking 28th flight.
Liftoff of fleet-leading first-stage booster 1067 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 11:36 p.m. EDT (0336 UTC). It will be the 100th launch of a single-stick Falcon 9 rocket from this pad.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.
On Saturday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 50 percent chance for favorable weather during the launch window. Meteorologists cited concerns with cloud cover overnight as a result of storms expected beginning Sunday afternoon and evening.
“Hi-res models suggest that while the bulk of convection will have waned around the Spaceport by the window opening late Sunday night, there is a higher probability of lingering showers and storms through the window due to the proximity of the upper-level system and breezy onshore flow,” launch weather officers wrote.
“The Cumulus Cloud threat will be in addition to the persistent threat for multilayered clouds moving across the Spaceport that are a combination of Thick Cloud Layers and Anvil Clouds.”
Weather appears to have been the limiting factor to launch Monday morning. SpaceX did not issue a statement about the reason for the scrub.
When it does launch, a little more than eight minutes after liftoff, SpaceX aims to land B1067 on its drone ship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ positioned in the Atlantic Ocean to the east of the Bahamas.
If all goes to plan, this would be the 120th successful landing for this drone ship and the 445th booster landing to date for SpaceX.