The next Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 launch was planned for Monday night, the company and Air Force said the day before the launch.
The Falcon 9 ORBCOMM2 launch, originally set for Sunday evening, was delayed to increase the chance that the rocket’s first stage may successfully land after completing the launch mission, Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO said on Twitter Sunday.
The mission’s secondary objective is the first attempt to land the Falcon 9 rocket after it completes the primary launch mission.
The new launch window opens at 8:29 pm EST on Monday night for five minutes at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla, according to SpaceX and the Air Force.
If the launch goes as planned, the rocket will deliver 11 ORBCOMM satellites to low-Earth orbit about 20 minutes after liftoff. The 11 satellites will complete the OG2 17-satellite constellation, fully dedicated to Machine to Machine (M2M) communications.
This is the first launch of the Falcon 9 since the rocket failed minutes after launch on a mission for NASA (Defense Daily, June 29).