This story was updated at 9:38 p.m. EST.
SpaceX officials called off the inaugural flight of their Falcon 1 rocket Saturday after a launch countdown beleaguered by poor weather, an engine computer glitch and liquid oxygen fill tank problems.
"As I warned, the likelihood of an all new rocket launching
from an all new launch pad on its first attempt is low," said SpaceX founder Elon Musk in a written statement.
SpaceX officials scrubbed today's planned space shot at about 8:00 p.m. EST (0100 Nov. 27 GMT), deep within a launch window that was extended to 10:00 p.m. EST (0300 Nov. 27 GMT) during the countdown.
Musk added
that the Falcon 1 flight could be rescheduled within one week, but would likely
take longer since additional liquid oxygen fuel must be delivered from Hawaii
to the firm's remote launch site on the Kwajalein
Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands chain.
Today's
attempted space shot was slated to orbit the FalconSat-2 satellite on a mission
for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air
Force. The $800,000 satellite - built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy -
is designed to study space plasma and its potential to interfere with
navigation and communication satellites, U.S. Air Force Academy officials said.
The
cube-shaped satellite measures about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) per side and
weighs about 43 pounds (19.5 kilograms), academy spokesman John van Winkle told
SPACE.com, adding that the spacecraft carries one miniature
electrostatic analyzer to study space plasma.
A tricky
countdown
The El
Segundo, California-based SpaceX hoped to make its
commercial launch service debut with today's planned space shot. The firm has
spent about three years developing a family of Falcon boosters to grow from its
Falcon 1 design and Merlin rocket engine.
"Unfortunately,
in this business there is always a chance for something not to go [as
planned]," said Larry Williams, SpaceX vice president
for international and government affairs, as the countdown clock ticked down.
SpaceX
launch officials initially set a four-hour launch window for today's Falcon 1
flight.
Poor
weather caused a one-hour delay early in the countdown, though an incorrectly
set valve on a liquid oxygen fuel fill tank led to a longer hiatus that
eventually prompted SpaceX officials to extend their
launch window.
But the
loss of liquid oxygen - which boils away during launch preparations and must be
replenished regularly - was too great, SpaceX
officials said, adding that a main engine computer glitch also caused enough
concern to reschedule the mission.
Launch
debut deferred
SpaceX
aims at providing low-cost launch services for both small and large payloads.
Falcon 1 launches have a set cost of about $6.7 million, Musk said before
today's launch attempt.
The firm's Falcon
1 rocket is a two-stage booster that stands about 68 feet (21 meters) tall and
carries a reusable first stage. Its Merlin 1 engine is designed to generate
about 77,000 pounds of thrust and loft payloads of up to 1,256 pounds (570
kilograms) into low-Earth orbit, SpaceX officials
have said.
The rocket
is the smallest in a planned SpaceX family of Falcon
launch vehicles, which includes the larger Falcon 9 rocket expected to boost
payloads of up to 20,500 pounds (9,300 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit.
advertisement
