SpaceX has a tentative return to flight date of December 16

Enlarge / SpaceX landed its latest booster on August 13, after the JCSAT-16 mission. (credit: SpaceX)

The satellite communications provider Iridium says it has a tentative launch date of December 16 for the first batch of its Iridium NEXT satellites, which would mark the return to flight for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The company made the announcement Thursday morning on its website.

Any launch remains contingent on Federal Aviation Approval of SpaceX's investigation into the cause of its September 1 accident, which caused a total loss of the rocket and payload on a Florida launch pad. However that investigation is near a resolution, and the setting of a launch date indicates some confidence in its successful conclusion.

According to Iridium, the mid-December launch would occur from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, at 3:36pm ET (8:36pm UK). It will send 10 satellites into space as part of Iridium's plan, over the course of seven launches, to replace its existing constellation of communications satellites in low Earth orbit with 70 next-generation satellites.