SpaceX Postpones Rocket Recovery Launch Again
WASHINGTON: Unfavourable weather again led private US spaceflight company SpaceX to put off a rocket launch that would have led to an experiment to test the possibility of reusable rockets.
With just 12 minutes remaining in the countdown at the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida Tuesday night, wind gusts of 185 kmph caused a safety concern, the Guardian reported.
Consequently, the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a deep-space observatory was put off. The launch must go forward by Wednesday, or face delays until next week, the report said.
It was SpaceX's second attempt this week to launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) after an earlier attempt Sunday was cancelled on account of inclement weather.
The DSCOVR satellite is designed to monitor weather in space, including solar storms, whose explosive bursts of solar particles can cause blackouts and disrupt communications on the Earth.
More importantly, perhaps, it was the company's second attempt this year to test reusable rockets. Ten minutes after the launch, the booster is scheduled to land on an unanchored barge in the Atlantic Ocean, from which it will be recovered and used again.
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