ORLANDO, Fla. _ Hours before the window was set to open Thursday night for a SpaceX launch of 60 Internet satellites, Elon Musk's rocket company called off the launch.
On Thursday evening, SpaceX said it was "standing down to update satellite software and triple-check everything again." The launch was originally scheduled to take place between 10:30 p.m. Thursday and midnight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch complex 40.
"Always want to do everything we can on the ground to maximize mission success," the company said in a tweet.
SpaceX said its next launch opportunity will be in about a week.
When the Falcon 9 rocket does take off, it would send the first set of satellites in SpaceX's planned Starlink constellation to space. SpaceX foresees sending as many as 12,000 satellites to low-Earth orbit, providing blanket coverage of the globe.
On a call with reporters Wednesday, Musk cautioned that the project is a supremely challenging feat of engineering, though he is hopeful the deployment of the satellites will be successful.
"There is a lot of new technology here, and so it's possible that some of these satellites may not work," Musk said earlier this week. "In fact, there is a small possibility that all of the satellites might not work."
