SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch scheduled today has been postponed to Monday, thanks to problems with a “telemetry item” and an “Air Force range” issue with one of their radars.
SpaceX was scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket at 6:10 p.m. EST on Sunday carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory. The launch would have been SpaceX’s second attempt – and potentially first successful attempt – to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket after its initial separation.
The Falcon 9 was set to deliver NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. When launched, this spacecraft will stay between the Earth and the Sun and it’s mission is to provide early warning of potential dangerous solar winds, which can affect infrastructure like communications systems. It will also be used for scientific investigations of the Sun.
After the launch of the mission, SpaceX will once again attempt to successfully land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. In the company’s first attempt in January, the rocket made it back to the drone barge but then suffered what CEO Elon Musk jokingly referred to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
The faulty radar in question was required to track the Falcon 9 rocket during its flight from the Cape, part of the 45th Space Wing’s responsibility for public safety during launches from the Eastern Range.
“The radar was not going to be able to come back up online and be ready to support the flight in time,” SpaceX’s John Insprucker said during the company’s Webcast. “So with that we had to call a hold.”
