Forecast fine for SpaceX Falcon 9 launch Wednesday

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Wednesday is shaping up to be a nice morning for SpaceX to launch a Falcon 9 rocket and a pair of communications satellites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

There's an 80% chance of conditions acceptable for a liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at 10:29 a.m., the opening of a 44-minute window.

"The primary weather threat remains cumulus clouds," reads the forecast from the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron issued Tuesday morning.

SpaceX on Sunday successfully test-fired the rocket's nine Merlin main engines to conclude a countdown rehearsal.

On top of the 230-foot rocket are satellites owned by two international operators, ABS and Eutelsat.

They are the second pair of Boeing-built spacecraft featuring all-electric propulsion that SpaceX is launching for the companies in a little more than a year.

For a fourth consecutive mission, SpaceX will try to land the Falcon 9's first stage on a "drone ship" stationed off the Florida coast.

The launch would be the second within five days from the Cape, after Saturday's successful flight by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, which delivered a U.S. intelligence satellite to orbit.

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