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July 23 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully launched a rocket with a payload of nearly two dozen Starlink satellites into space Sunday night following several weather delays. The Falcon 9 rocket launched at 8:50 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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The launch of 22 satellites into low-Earth orbit was originally scheduled for Saturday, but after officials had to delay liftoff several times because of weather, the mission was scrubbed and pushed to Sunday.
At the start of the countdown with minutes before liftoff, Atticus Vadera, propulsion engineer with SpaceX and host of the live broadcast, said weather was a "watch item but is trending in a positive direction."
The satellites were deployed into low-Earth orbit where they will join Starlink's constellation of thousands of orbitals that provide low-latency, high-speed Internet worldwide.
The rocket's first-stage booster, which was on its six flight Sunday, returned to Earth and was retrieved by SpaceX's autonomous barrage Just Read the Instructions stationed out in the Atlantic Ocean.
The launch was SpaceX's 49th of the year and 248th overall.
It also comes days after SpaceX launched 15 of the Starlink satellites into space on Wednesday.
