After a long delay, a Falcon 9 rocket launch finally sent four satellites into orbit for Astranis Space Technologies.

The SpaceX rocket blasted off on a delivery mission from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40 at midnight on Sunday, December 29, rumbling along a trajectory due east.

The last attempt at this launch on Friday, December 20th saw a rare last-second abort. SpaceX called an early cleanup the next day and rolled the rocket back to replace the first stage booster. A reason for the cancellation and the booster replacement was not given.

Eight and a half minutes after launch, the proven first stage of the Falcon 9 landed for the seventh time on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Previous missions for this booster include: three Starlink missions, NASA’s Crew-8, Polaris Dawn and the ISS resupply mission CRS-31.

The fairing halves that protect the satellites during launch were also recovered by SpaceX’s recovery ship Doug.

This Falcon 9 rocket placed four satellites into geostationary orbit – over 22,000 miles above Earth – for Astranis Space Technologies. To illustrate, the ISS only orbits the Earth at a distance of 254 miles. According to Astranis’ website, they build the most advanced satellites for higher orbits. The name of the Sunday mission: From One to Many.

According to Astranis, “one was just the beginning.” The four satellites, launched early Sunday, will provide affordable, low-cost internet — and that’s not all.

The company also plans to make the Space Force’s GPS system more resilient in the future. 100 satellites are expected to have been launched by 2030.

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Shortly before 9 p.m. ET on Saturday evening, SpaceX also launched a Starlink mission from California. Next up, SpaceX is planning another Starlink launch from Kennedy Space Center tomorrow evening. If this succeeds, SpaceX will be able to launch again from all three launch pads in a short time.

Next SpaceX rocket launch from Florida

The next rocket launch is expected to be a Falcon 9 carrying the latest batch of SpaceX Starlink satellites. The Starlink 12-6 mission is scheduled to launch early Monday morning at midnight, with possibilities until 3:28 a.m. The launch is scheduled to take place from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A.

Brooke Edwards is a space reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or at X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Midnight launch: SpaceX Florida launch delivers Astranis satellites