SpaceX just aborted a rocket launch for the second time in lower than per week.
Certainly one of the corporate’s Falcon 9 rockets was scheduled to launch 15 Starlink web satellites from California’s foggy Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday (July 19) at 1:25 a.m. EDT (0525 GMT; 10:25 p.m. local California time on July 18).
However it wasn’t to be: The launch team called things off with just five seconds left on the countdown clock.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos
“There are millions of ways a launch can go mistaken and only a technique that it might go right,” SpaceX’s Zach Luppen said through the webcast of the planned launch. “Provided that, we’re overly cautious on the bottom. And if the team or the vehicle sees anything that just looks even barely off, they’ll stop the countdown.”
SpaceX’s Atticus Vadera uttered very similar words on July 14, after the launch team called off the planned liftoff of a Falcon 9 topped with 54 Starlink satellites from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That rocket flew without incident the subsequent day, acing its record-tying sixteenth mission.
It’s unclear what caused Wednesday’s abort; the mission team didn’t specify the problem through the webcast, which ended shortly after the launch was scrubbed. (The weather was ok for launch, despite the thick fog at Vandenberg.)
But Luppen said that the rocket and the Starlink satellites are in good health. And SpaceX goals to launch again soon: The corporate said via Twitter that it’s targeting Wednesday (July 19) for the subsequent liftoff. Presumably, meaning a 24-hour delay, with a launch Wednesday night California time, which is early Thursday (July 20) EDT and GMT.