Bad weather forced SpaceX to cancel plans to launch a record 143 small satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday.
The team was ordered to recycle for another attempt Sunday at 10 a.m. EST, when forecasters predicted a 70% chance of acceptable conditions.
SpaceX Webcast
The scores of satellites on top of the Falcon 9 are the most ever scheduled for single rocket launch, eclipsing the previous 104 satellite mark set by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in February 2017.
The mission, known as Transporter 1, is SpaceX’s first dedicated rides flight in a program intended to provide low-cost access to space for small satellite operators who would otherwise have problems hitchhiking aboard rockets with larger, higher-priority satellites. .
“Excited about offering low-cost job access to small businesses!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted Friday.
SpaceX charges a relatively low $ 1 million to launch a 440 pound satellite and $ 5,000 for every 2.2 pounds above that base level. The company says Transporter missions will run every four months or as needed.
The Transporter 1 flight highlights an ongoing debate in the aerospace community about the need for renewed regulations for space traffic management, as more and more small satellites are in low Earth orbit. One of the concerns: the threat of collisions that can create debris clouds and threaten other spacecraft.
“Given the recent increase in nontraditional commercial space operations, including satellite maintenance, space tourism, and the deployment of large numbers of satellites to provide global Internet access, updates to existing roles and responsibilities may be appropriate,” said NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. wrote in a recent report.
“As things stand, there are no clear powers to direct the cohesion between the many entities operating in space.”