NEW YORK: SpaceX Tesla chief executive Elon Musk’s private space company must wait until at least Friday for a test of a potentially groundbreaking reusable rocket.
The launch of SpaceX’sFalcon 9 rocket was scrubbed Tuesday just seconds before the scheduled 6:20 a.m. EST liftoff at Cape Canaveral, Fla. A statement from NASA said the decision was made with 21 seconds left on the launch clock after a problem was detected in the “thrust vector control” system on the rocket’s second stage. Musk said it was “behaving strangely.”
The next launch is scheduled Friday at 5:09 a.m.
The mission is to resupply the International Space Station. But attention will be on an unprecedented attempt to recapture and reuse the rocket’s booster. A successful retrieval would have wide-ranging implications for space missions, including lowering costs and possibly speeding up the pace of launches.
But even SpaceX was keeping expectations modest in the first attempt to try to steer the booster to a platform in the Atlantic.
“The odds of success are not great — perhaps 50 percent at best,” the company said. “However, this test represents the first in a series of similar tests that will ultimately deliver a fully reusable Falcon 9 first stage.”
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