SpaceX cancels Starlink launch due to Tropical Storm Arthur

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

SpaceX has announced that it is canceling its planned eighth Starlink launch due to Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the year which has formed in the Atlantic.

SpaceX already had to delay its planned launch from Sunday, May 17, until Monday, May 18, due to a scheduling conflict, then chose to delay again until Tuesday 19 due to weather conditions. But with Arthur moving in from the ocean, the company has decided to scrap the launch for now.

Recommended Videos

Weather conditions including heavy rain and high winds are expected along the North Carolina coast this week.

Standing down from the Starlink mission, due to tropical storm Arthur, until after launch of Crew Demo-2

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 18, 2020

Instead, SpaceX will focus on its upcoming Demo-2 mission on May 27, which is the first manned test flight of its new crew capsule which will ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and back.

As the planned first launch of American astronauts from American soil since the ending of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, this mission has attracted considerable attention both from the space industry and from the public.

SpaceX will continue launching its Starlink satellites after the Demo-2 mission.

Georgina Torbet

Former Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Topics

Space

SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for the first time but its historic flight ends early

Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink satellites before an early splashdown.

spacex-starship

After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180

Space

Starship is finally going orbital, and SpaceX has picked September 22

Flight 14 is aiming for orbit, Starlink V3 deployment and a very long day in space.

Starship rocket.

SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.

Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver

Space

Want a city on the Moon? Scientists say there’s not enough water

A billion tons still comes up short

Artist impression of activities in a Moon Base.

For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.

A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.