SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 Starlink launches Saturday

July 26 (UPI) -- Two weeks after suffering an anomaly to one of its rockets, SpaceX now has Federal Aviation Administration clearance to launch 23 of its Starlink broadband satellites Saturday morning.

SpaceX will live stream the launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and it will take place during a four-hour window starting at 12:21 a.m. EDT using the company's Falcon 9 rocket.

Saturday's launch is expected to see the reusable Falcon 9 rocket return to Earth approximately eight minutes after launch, making a vertical touchdown on a waiting SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

An additional four-hour backup launch window is available the following day, the company said on its website.

It will mark the California-based space company's first launch since July 11, when one of its Falcon 9 rockets suffered liquid oxygen leak .

The company referred to the incident as an anomaly. The issue resulted in the 20 satellites aboard being deployed into a lower-than-intended orbit, causing the FAA to temporarily ground the rocket fleet.

"SpaceX submitted its mishap report to the Federal Aviation Administration regarding Falcon 9's launch anomaly on July 11, 2024 . SpaceX's investigation team, with oversight from the FAA, was able to identify the most probable cause of the mishap and associated corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions," the company said in a statement.

SpaceX submitted its findings Thursday night to the FAA and the agency found "no public safety issues were involved in the anomaly."

Engineers attempted to salvage about 10 of the satellites by raising their altitudes but were unable to do so.

"Unfortunately, the satellites were in an enormously high-drag environment with a very low perigee of only 135 km above the Earth. As a result, all 20 Starlink satellites from this launch re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. By design, Starlink satellites fully demise upon reentry, posing no threat to public safety. To-date, no debris has been reported after the successful deorbit of Starlink satellites," SpaceX said in the statement.