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Strong Winds Force SpaceX to Delay Falcon 9 Launch, Reschedule for Thursday

High winds forced SpaceX to delay the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, which was scheduled to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base Wednesday morning.

The satellite-carrying rocket caused a commotion around Southern California during a Dec. 22 launch.

The private space exploration company launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in January 2017. (Credit: SpaceX.com)

The mysterious lights caused several emergency calls, eventually prompting the Los Angeles Fire Department to put out an advisory informing the public of the rocket launch, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The two satellites were originally scheduled to be launched on Saturday, but that event was also canceled.

The SpaceX team was “taking additional time to perform final checkouts of upgraded fairing,” the company tweeted Saturday.

The satellites are part of Elon Musk’s plans to build a space-based broadband internet service, the Times reported.

SpaceX said it would try again to launch the satellites on Thursday at 6:17 a.m.

A KTLA viewer submitted this photo a SpaceX rocket launch seen over Fountain Valley.
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