SpaceX delays launch of Starfall return capsule to Tuesday over recovery weather
A Falcon 9 carrying SpaceX’s Starfall capsule and about 30 other payloads did not launch on Monday because of poor weather in the booster recovery zone. The new target is no earlier than Tuesday.
Symbolic image · Photo: U.S. Space Force/Joshua Conti / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
SpaceX postponed its Bandwagon-5 rideshare launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by one day, citing unfavorable weather for recovering the rocket’s first stage. The one-hour launch window now opens no earlier than 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The U.S. Space Force’s weather squadron had given Monday only a 55% chance of acceptable conditions.
The rocket carries about 32 payloads, including SpaceX’s second Starfall capsule. The disk-shaped reentry vehicle is 3.1 meters wide, weighs about 2,100 kilograms and can hold up to 1,000 kilograms of cargo. It is designed to return goods made in microgravity and splash down under parachutes in the Pacific. The first Starfall flew on June 23.
Other passengers include satellites from HawkEye 360, Iceye and Xona Space Systems, and Varda Space Industries’ W-7 capsule, which is testing a cancer drug in microgravity. The B1085 booster is making its 19th flight and is set to land on the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic.