Unfavorable weather delayed the Falcon 9 rocket launch of 24 Starlink satellites at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday morning. 

The team was counting down to a liftoff from Space Launch Complex-4 at 8:48 a.m. when the launch director declared “hold, hold, hold” with less than a minute before liftoff.

“We are standing down due to weather being no go,” the launch director added. 

The team has a backup opportunity on Thursday, but weather could be problematic again.

The remnants of tropical storm Mario have moved into the area, bringing high humidity along with a chance of rain and thunderstorms. 

While SpaceX did not spell out the specific reason for the delay, various weather conditions can cause mission managers to scrub a launch countdowns. Those include clouds that can trigger lightning as the rocket travels. High winds on the ground or at upper levels also can lead to delays.

SpaceX also monitors ocean conditions and weather hundreds of miles away where the droneship will serve the landing platform for the first-stage booster once its tasks are done.

This will be the 10th flight for the first-stage booster used for the mission to place 24 Starlink satellites in orbit.

The next opportunity could occur as soon as 8:41 a.m. to 12:41 p.m. Thursday, although SpaceX had not confirmed the next attempt.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff and can be watched at spacex.com and on X @SpaceX.