FRANCE: SpaceX’s planned launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, was postponed until Monday at the earliest due to a problem with the AirForce’s tracking radar system in Florida.
“Hold, hold, hold,” came the call from the launch team, with just two minutes and 26 seconds left in Sunday’s countdown toward a sunset launch.
The team was investigating the radar issue and would confirm a new launch time once the issue was resolved. The next opportunity comes at 6:07 p.m.
We’ll circle back and try to get this mission off of the pad tomorrow.” SpaceX was forced to delay the launch of a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket with NOAA and NASA’s DSCOVR mission.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the launch team was also dealing with a problem that affected a transmitter on the rocket’s first stage.
The delay means the 17-year-long saga leading up to DSCOVR’s launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida would last at least a day longer.
The $340 million mission was first suggested in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore, as a way to provide real-time views of Earth’s full sunlit disk from a stable gravitational point a million miles away, known as L1.
The mission ran into resistance in Congress, however, and the spacecraft was put into storage after President George W. Bush came into office.
Several years ago, NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force got together to formulate a new mission that made use of the old satellite: providing early warnings for potentially hazardous solar outbursts.
