Falcon 9 will make a fifth attempt Friday to launch the SES-9 satellite. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has rescheduled its next Falcon 9 launch attempt for tonight. The company confirmed plans Thursday to make another attempt to launch the SES-9 communications satellite during a 91-minute window that opens at 6:35 p.m. Eastern tonight.

SpaceX postponed a previous attempt Tuesday because of strong upper-altitude winds that have now subsided.

Forecasts call for a 90-percent chance of acceptable weather for launch Friday or Saturday.

Three earlier attempts were postponed by fueling issues, in one case caused at least in part by a hold when a boat entered restricted waters off Cape Canaveral. [Florida Today]


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Presidential candidate Ted Cruz called for a space-based missile defense system in Thursday night’s Republican debate. Cruz said that an advantage of a space-based system is that it could “take out one or two or three missiles” launched from Iran and North Korea before they approached the U.S. That comment was the only space-related mention during the often-contentious debate in Detroit. [New York Times]

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...