Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, on Saturday delayed the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying six communications satellites after cloudy skies hit its Florida launch site.
The privately owned company had rescheduled the launch for Saturday after encountering a technical problem minutes before a launch attempt on Friday from Cape Canaveral US Air Force Station in Florida.
The rocket carries six small satellites for Orbcomm, a provider of machine-to-machine data and messaging services worldwide.
“Today’s Orbcomm launch attempt has been scrubbed due to weather,” SpaceX wrote on its Web site.
A spokeswoman for Orbcomm said in an e-mail that the next launch attempt would be 5:30pm yesterday.
SpaceX had 53 minutes to launch the rocket, beginning at 5:46pm, to put the Orbcomm satellites into their designated orbits about 800 km above Earth and inclined 47o relative to the equator.
The launch on Friday was called off after engineers detected unexpected pressure readings in the rocket’s second-stage engine. SpaceX provided no additional details of the problem.
For Saturday’s attempt, the California-based company, owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, canceled its Web cast and provided no commentary about the launch countdown, a public service offered even for classified US Department of Defense satellite launches.
“For the first time since the end of the Cold War, a space launch from Cape Canaveral will not be broadcast to the press and the public,” Spaceflightnow.com, which provides live launch coverage, wrote on its Web site.
SpaceX did not respond to e-mails about the blackout.
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