High winds force SpaceX to postpone first launch of Starlink satellites

Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX postponed a planned Wednesday night blastoff of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first 60 satellites for his new Starlink internet service, citing excessive winds over the Florida launch site.

Launch of the mission, aimed at placing the initial stage of Musk’s space-based global internet network into low-Earth orbit, was rescheduled for 10:30 pm on Thursday (0230 GMT Friday) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, SpaceX said.

In a call with reporters before Wednesday’s countdown was halted, the high-tech entrepreneur praised the “fundamental goodness” of his ambitions to expand internet connectivity globally but cautioned that success was far from guaranteed.

Musk said he expects revenues from rocket launch services provided by his privately held Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, to top out at about $3 billion per year. That makes Starlink key to generating the cash that SpaceX needs to fund Musk’s larger dream of developing new spacecraft capable of flying paying customers to the moon and eventually trying to colonize Mars.