High winds postponed SpaceX’s rocket launch on Monday night, but the mission was completed during a backup window on Wednesday.
After another 25-minute delay due to more wind, the Hawthorne, California aerospace company successfully launched an EchoStar communications satellite into orbit last night at 11 p.m. PT. The satellite will provide broadcast services to Brazil.
Because the payload was so big and had to go so high this time — the satellite weighs six tons and is now orbiting 22,000 miles above Earth — SpaceX determined that it did not have enough fuel to attempt a rocket landing. Rather, the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket fell away into the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket took off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida — a historic site that served as the launch pad for many Apollo missions including Apollo 11, which flew astronauts to the moon.
The EchoStar XXIII mission marks SpaceX’s second launch on that site. In 2014, the company signed a 20-year lease to use LC-39A, making significant upgrades to modernize the pad’s structures and ground systems to support launches of commercial and crew missions on Falcon 9 and Flacon Heavy rockets, while preserving its historic heritage.
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