SpaceX is gearing up for its second launch this week with a rhythm mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. After successfully launching its own payload from Florida earlier this week, SpaceX is preparing a new Falcon 9 rocket to take off with satellites from a variety of customers, including DARPA, NASA and more of its own Starlink satellites.

The SpaceX rhythm mission includes government and private customer payloads as well as a dozen smaller nano satellites. The rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 40. The launch window will open on Saturday at 9:40 AM. It was postponed from Friday morning.

The mission, known as Transporter-1, also includes a somewhat last-minute addition of 10 Starlink satellites, having received Federal Communications Commission approval earlier this month to include it.

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According to the 45th Space Wing’s prediction, the current concern for the launch window is thick cloud. Space Force forecasters give the launch window a 60% chance of favorable weather. A front will bring showers to the Space Coast on Saturday morning.

After launch, the Falcon 9 will head south toward an arctic orbit, a rare trajectory that will send the missile along the Florida coast. Because of its unusual path, SpaceX’s drone ship, Naturally I Still Love You, won’t be waiting north of the launch site to catch the rocket booster, but straight south in the Atlantic.

Earlier in the week, another Falcon 9 launched 60 Starlink internet-radiating satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The successful delivery to low Earth orbit was the 17th batch part of SpaceX’s constellation, designed to provide global Internet to even remote parts of the world. There were already nearly 1,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.

SpaceX plans to grow that zodiac sign further this year with launches every other week.

Meanwhile, SpaceX teams in Texas are working on a new test flight of the company’s interplanetary spaceship under development at the Boca Chica site. Starship’s most recent flight astounded online viewers around the world when the spaceship prototype launched, airfolded, and landed for an explosive landing.

This weekend’s launch is the third for SpaceX this year.

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