CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Despite a number of delays and a lot of fog, SpaceX launched more than 20 Starlink satellites early Tuesday morning.  

The company’s Falcon 9 rocket sent off Starlink 12-3 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX.

Liftoff took place at 5:15 a.m. ET, with the launch window closing at 6:24 a.m. ET. 

Originally, the mission was going to takeoff on Monday at 3:54 a.m. ET. but it was pushed back to 5:54 a.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 7:42 a.m. ET. Then it was pushed back again for 3:37 a.m. ET, Tuesday.

However, SpaceX scrubbed the launch and rescheduled it for Tuesday. No reason was given for the delays.

For Tuesday's launch, the 45th Weather Squadron gave a 95% chance of good liftoff conditions, with no weather concerns, even with the foggy conditions

Find out more about the weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch.

If the launch was scrubbed, the next attempt would have been at 2:59 a.m. ET, Wednesday.

Going up

This is the 21st mission for the Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1069. It has had 20 missions before this launch:

• CRS-24
• Eutelsate Hotbird 13F
• SES-18 & 19
• OneWeb
• 16 Starlink missions

After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions that that is in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

The Starlink company’s 21 satellites will travel to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands of their brothers and sisters there.

And 13 of those have direct-to-cell capabilities, explained SpaceX, which owns Starlink.

Once deployed and in their orbit, they will provide internet service to several places on Earth.

Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been recording Starlink satellites.

Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:

• 6,992 are in orbit
• 6,265 are in operational orbit