A surprise read of a ground sensor prompted SpaceX to cancel a planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 other Starlink broadband satellites on Thursday.
It was the second last minute of a rocket launch in less than 10 hours off the coast of Florida, before a joint launch Alliance Delta 4-heavy rocket fired by an American The government spy was about to kill the fleet. In the cycle of the satellite.
Back-to-back abortions thwarted plans to launch two satellite delivery missions from separate pads at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. The double launch will mark the shortest period between 1966 and two Rabbit-class flights from the Space Coast.
Instead, the ULA and the SpaceX mission, which had already faced previous launch delays, were rebuilt.
Delta 4-Heavy’s sudden countdown Wednesday left the second half for the rocket in the last 10 seconds before the lift. An initial attempt was thwarted at T-minus 3 seconds on August 29 after the rocket’s three RS-68A engines went unnoticed.
Here is a replay of the last second of the Delta 4-Heavy Countdown released tonight.
This is the second incomplete release in less than 10 seconds for this mission.
Ongoing coverage: https://t.co/gZCB2vhVYZ pic.twitter.com/Gt7Wf4Cgzb
– Now Spaceflight (@ Spaceflight Now) October 1, 2020
A 50-50 joint venture between the UAE, Boeing and Lockheed Martin discovered the problem on August 29 at a Delta 4 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The company then postponed the Delta 4-heavy launch from Saturday, September 26, to investigate concerns about swing weapons on launch pad 37B. An initial attempt was thwarted on Tuesday when teams discovered a hydraulic leak in the ground system that was responsible for moving the launch pad’s mobile gantry away from the rocket and into the elevator position.
Read our old story For details on Delta 4-heavy delays.
After a late-night Delta 4 launch abortion, the ULA launched cryogenic propellants from the rocket and launched an investigation into what counterattack’s automated series commanded the hold just 7 seconds before the lift. ULA officials did not immediately set a start date for the new target, but the mission is expected to begin several days later.
SpaceX plans to launch the Falcon 9 rocket on EDT (1317 GMT) at 9:17 a.m. Thursday from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, a few miles north of the Delta 4 launch complex. .
The Falcon 9 was filled with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, and the countdown continued through the standard pre-launch milestone until the clock stopped t-minus 18 seconds. With 60 Starlink satellites, the Falcon 9 mission has the opportunity to launch an instant plan every day, so an automatic hold means the rocket can’t take off on Thursday.
SpaceX tweeted, “Family ground system censors are falling below today’s Starlink mission.” The company said it would “announce the launch date of a new target once confirmed on the range.”
SpaceX has canceled an attempt to launch today’s Falcon 9 after an abortion due to a sudden ground sensor reading in Florida.
SpaceX has not set a launch date for the mission to launch 60 more Starlink broadband satellites into bit orbit.https://t.co/I0aLt9X1Jq pic.twitter.com/Zv0Gr0gRS6
– Now Spaceflight (@ Spaceflight Now) October 1, 2020
The 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force released a fresh official start weather forecast on Thursday, suggesting that Starlink’s flight was rescheduled for Saturday at 8:34 a.m. EDT (1234 GMT). , When there is a 60 percent chance of favorable weather. Falcon 9 rocket lift off.
But SpaceX has not officially confirmed the launch date of the new target, and it is possible that the Starlink mission may be further delayed. SpaceX is developing a separate Falcon 9 rocket for the U.S. military to launch Friday night from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the Global Positioning System Navigation Satellite.
SpaceX prioritizes national security missions, such as the GPS mission, as it appears at launch.
The company has two drones in the Atlantic Ocean at various locations a few hundred miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, where the Falcon 9 booster will attempt landing from the launch of GPS and Starlink. SpaceX plans to retrieve and reuse the rocket for future missions.
The Starlink mission is the 13th launch of the Falcon 9 rocket to launch about 60 Starlink satellites. With the next launch, SpaceX will deploy 775 Starlink satellites, including prototypes.
The launch, which was scheduled to depart on Thursday morning, was first scrapped on September 17 in the Atlantic Ocean due to bad conditions in the Booster Down Narrow Recovery Zone and then on Monday due to bad weather at the launch site.
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