Updated at 9:57 a.m. ETSpaceX aborted a launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying satellites for OneWeb and Iridium early Friday less than a minute before liftoff. The abort occurred 55 seconds before the planned launch.
“Far from launching today’s Iridium OneWeb mission,” SpaceX wrote in a Twitter update.
The next launch attempt can occur at Saturday, May 20 at 9:15 AM EST (1315 GMT).
SpaceX plans to launch its second mission in seven hours on Friday morning (May 19), and you can watch the event live.
A Falcon 9 rocket with 21 Iridium and OneWeb satellites is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Friday at 9:19 a.m. EDT (1319 GMT; 6:19 a.m. California local time).
Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or live across the company. Coverage is expected to begin 15 minutes prior to launch.
Related: 8 ways SpaceX has changed spaceflight
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth about nine minutes after liftoff. You will land on the SpaceX Of Course I Still Love You drone, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
SpaceX said in a Description of the task.
In the meantime, the rocket’s upper stage will continue to carry satellites — five of which belong to Iridium and the other 16 to OneWeb — into low Earth orbit. They are scheduled to deploy over a period of about 30 minutes, starting about an hour after liftoff.
Fifteen of OneWeb’s satellites will build the company’s broadband constellation in low Earth orbit. Sixteenth is a technology demonstrator known as JoeySat.
“JoySat contains several new technologies, including digitally renewable payload and electronically directed multi-beam phased array antennas,” OneWeb wrote. Description of the task.
SpaceX has already launched three batches of OneWeb internet satellites, sending 40 spacecraft into the skies on each of those previous missions.
The five Iridium satellites are spare parts that will provide additional support to the Company’s 66 communications satellites currently in operation. (Iridium already has nine spare satellites in orbit.)
Iridium CEO Matt Dish said Statement in September 2022when this SpaceX launch was announced.
“We have built additional satellites as an insurance policy, and with SpaceX’s stellar track record, we look forward to another successful launch, which will best position us to replicate the longevity of our first batch,” he added.
This launch will be the second in quick succession for SpaceX. The company also launched 22 Starlink “V2 mini” internet satellites from Space Coast, Florida, on Friday at 2:19 a.m. EDT (0619 GMT).
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