The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was aborted on Friday and now the mission will be utilising the backup slot. The space agency now plans to launch the 54 Starlink satellites aboard the Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday.
Friday’s mission was called off just 40 seconds before the lift-off due to reasons which aren’t immediately clear, as per a Space.com report.
“We are overly cautious on the ground. And if the team or the vehicle sees anything that looks just even slightly off, we will stop the countdown," SpaceX engineer Atticus Vadera was quoted as saying in the report.
However, the
Falcon 9 rocket and the Starlink satellites are okay, he added.
The upcoming mission will be the 16th mission for this particular rocket's first stage, matching a record of most re-use missions set less than a week ago by another Falcon 9.
If all goes as per the plan, the
Falcon 9 rocket’s non-reusable upper stage will continue to carry the 54 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, ultimately deploying them about a little over an hour after lift-off.
When and where to watch:
The upcoming launch will happen at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday at 9:45 AM IST (12:40 AM EDT).
The live webcast of the launch will begin about five minutes ahead of the launch.
The live streaming of the launch will also be available on the official YouTube channel of the space agency.
Earlier on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched the
Chandrayaan-3 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The space agency’s Launch Vehicle Mark III rocket carried the mission capsule which is equipped with a lander, a rover and a propulsion module. The Chandrayaan-3 was successfully placed into orbit by the LVM-III rocket.
Chandrayaan-3 is India’s third lunar mission that aims to perform a soft landing at the lunar surface, conduct exploration activities and in-situ experiments on the surface.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
