SpaceX aborts launch of Starlink satellites for third time
In this SpaceX handout image, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft launches on the Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard at Launch Complex 39A May 30, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch of a manned SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. It was the first launch of an American crew from U.S. soil since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. (Photo by SpaceX via Getty Images)
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (NewsNation Now) — SpaceX canceled a third attempt to launch a rocket carrying another batch of Starlink satellites into orbit Thursday.
The Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:17 a.m. ET. But with 15 seconds left in the countdown, the mission was aborted due to “an out of family ground system sensor reading.”
“Keep in mind, the purpose of countdown is to help us catch potential issues prior to flight,” a SpaceX official said on the mission’s livestream Thursday. “There’s a thousand ways that a launch can go wrong and only one way it can go right. Given that we’re overly cautious on the ground, and if the team or the vehicle sees anything that looks slightly off, we’ll stop the countdown.”
The launch will mark SpaceX’s 13th Starlink mission as the company tries to build a network of about 12,000 small satellites to provide high-speed and affordable internet around the world, NewsNation affiliate WFLA reported.
The rocket was initially scheduled to launch Sept. 17, but the launch was scrubbed twice due to weather and unfavorable conditions in the Atlantic.
