Last-minute rocket trouble forced SpaceX on Saturday to delay its inaugural launch from NASA’s historic moon pad.<\/b>
Posted 38 minutes ago
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. \u2014 Last-minute rocket trouble forced SpaceX on Saturday to delay its inaugural launch from NASA’s historic moon pad.
SpaceX halted the countdown with just 13 seconds remaining. The second-stage steering issue actually cropped up several minutes earlier. But with just an instant to get the unmanned Falcon rocket airborne, flight controllers could not resolve the problem in time.
The next launch attempt \u2014 provided everything can be fixed quickly \u2014 would be Sunday morning.
The Falcon remains at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, waiting to soar on a space station delivery mission. It’s the same pad where Americans flew to the moon almost a half-century ago.
Up at the International Space Station, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet had a light-hearted take on the delay.
\u00ab\u00a0Looks like I’ll have to wait one more day to get my French cheese \ud83d\ude09\u00a0\u00bb Pesquet wrote via Twitter. He added: \u00ab\u00a0We need all your cargo for @ISS_Research! \u00a0\u00bb
SpaceX chief Elon Musk said engineers want to make certain the \u00ab\u00a0slightly odd\u00a0\u00bb position of an engine piston isn’t representative of bigger trouble. It’s not out of the question that Saturday’s problem is somehow related to the minor upper-stage helium leak detected the day before, he reported.
There’s a 99 percent chance everything is likely to be fine, Musk said in a tweet. \u00ab\u00a0But that 1 percent chance isn’t worth rolling the dice. Better to wait a day. \u00a0\u00bb
Thousands of guests had jammed the space center to witness the comeback of 39A, last used in 2011 for the final space shuttle flight. Disappointment was high when the urgent call of \u00ab\u00a0hold, hold, hold! \u00a0\u00bb sounded over the radio lines.
This will be SpaceX’s first Florida launch since a rocket explosion last summer.
The Sept. 1 accident occurred during prelaunch testing at a neighboring pad. SpaceX turned to Launch Complex 39A \u2014 which it leases from NASA \u2014 to resume flights. The company hopes to launch astronauts from 39A next year.
Russia, meanwhile, plans to launch a supply ship to the International Space Station on Wednesday. If the SpaceX mission doesn’t get going soon, it would likely have to get in line behind the Russian delivery.
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Online:
SpaceX: http:\/\/www.spacex.com\/
NASA: https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/<\/p>\n

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