SpaceX Starlink launch postponed again, will try again next week

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 16 (UPI) -- SpaceX scrubbed a second attempt to launch 60 Starlink satellites from Florida Thursday night.

The company had been aiming for a 10:30 p.m. launch but tweeted about 8:29 p.m. that it was standing down "to update satellite software and triple-check everything again." It will try again in about a week, the tweet said.

Weather was favorable for a launch but still presented a risk of strong upper-level winds that also had caused a postponement Wednesday night.

SpaceX plans to use the satellites to start a high-speed internet network, aiming to launch up to 12,000 of them eventually.

With a new service launching for the first time, SpaceX founder Elon Musk had acknowledged on Wednesday that "much will likely go wrong."

SpaceX is one of several big players trying to start new networks that use thousands of non-geostationary satellites to offer high-speed Internet and other types of communication around the globe.

The focus is on boosting Internet access to rural areas first. Others companies working on large new constellations include OneWeb, which launched its first six satellites in February, and Telesat.

It would be the heaviest payload the Falcon rocket has ever carried.

The Federal Communications Commission approved a SpaceX application in 2018 to "provide broadband services using satellite technology in the United States and around the world."