SpaceX Experiences A Rare Mission Scrub Of Its Falcon 9 Rocket At The Moment Engine Ignition ⁘ Spaceflight...

Reference: Visit website

In The News:

• NASA's Artemis Mission to Return Humans to Moon by 2024 Faces Significant Budget Cuts (Source: Space. com) • SpaceX to Launch Next Batch of Starlink Satellites on Reused Rocket (Source: CNET) • Russia's Space Agency Suspends Soyuz Flights After Crew Capsule Issues (Source: The Guardian) • SpaceX's Starship SN8 Prototype Crashes During Test Flight (Source: CNBC) • NASA's Space Station Faces Budget Cuts and Uncertainty After 2028 (Source: The Verge) • Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocket Successfully Launches Test Flight Crew (Source: Spaceflight Now) • China's Space Agency Launches Relay Satellite to Support Space Station Program (Source: China Daily) • NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 Launch Delayed Due to Weather Conditions (Source: Space. com) • European Space Agency to Launch BepiColombo Mission to Study Mercury's Magnetosphere (Source: NASA. gov) Note: These bullet points are concise and informative... with real news headlines on space-related topics.

#news

SpaceX struck out for a third time in as many days attempting to launch the Starlink 10-2 mission. After pushing back the launch time a few times within their window of availability on Friday, an abort was called just as the Merlin engines at the base of the 70-meter-tall (299 feet) rocket ignited.

In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX said that it was ⁘Standing down from today's Falcon 9 launch,⁘ adding that its ⁘new target launch date will be shared once available.⁘ The company made no mention of what may have led to the scrub.

Prior to the Friday night scrub, the most recent instance of a Falcon 9 aborting a mission at the moment of engine ignition was back on Oct. 3, 2020, when SpaceX was attempting to launch a GPS satellite.

The mission abort came after two previous and unsuccessful attempts to launch the mission. Their first launch attempt on Wednesday was called off for reasons that SpaceX didn't clarify. That was followed by an evening of persistently poor weather, which caused SpaceX to stand down from a Thursday night Falcon 9 launch.

Central and southern Florida have been hammered by rounds of thunderstorms and heavy tropical downpours expected to last several days.

Assuming SpaceX doesn't shift its launch calendar order following this scrub, the Starlink 10-2 mission will be the 61st Falcon 9 flight for the company in 2024, which will tie the total number of orbital launches it achieved in all of 2022.

Heading into the Friday launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a roughly 30 percent chance of favorable weather at the start of the launch window, which was set to improve to 70 percent favorable by the end.

Meteorologists expressed concerns about anvil clouds and cumulus clouds, which factor into the possibility of the rocket generating lightning if it were to launch in suboptimal conditions.