By Katherine Chiglinsky and Julie Johnsson
(Bloomberg) — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 reusable rocket failed to launch today after the mission was aborted during the countdown at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The two-stage rocket from Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. was due to carry food and science experiments to the International Space Station under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The launch was scrubbed with just over one minute until liftoff after a steering mechanism for the second-stage rocket malfunctioned. SpaceX will need to investigate the component, which was “behaving strangely,” Musk said on his Twitter account. The soonest a second attempt can be made is Friday morning.
SpaceX is trying to make history with technology that will guide spent boosters to a soft, vertical touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean, instead of burning up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Developing a rocket capable of multiple launches could cut spaceflight expenses by a factor of 100, Musk has said. NASA relies on Orbital and SpaceX for flights after ending the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
This week’s mission comes after a Dec. 18 launch was pushed back and would be the first since an Antares rocket operated by rival Orbital Sciences Corp. exploded in October.
The odds of success for the initial trial with the system “are not great — perhaps 50 percent at best,” SpaceX has said. The flight targets a landing accuracy of within 10 meters, versus the 10 kilometers achieved on two successful water landings using the retro thrusters last year.
SpaceX is hauling more than 5,200 pounds (2,359 kilograms) of supplies to the ISS’s crew of two U.S. astronauts, one European and three Russian cosmonauts. The trip would be the fifth successful resupply mission, according to the company.
Even after Orbital’s explosion, the six crew members aboard the space station still have enough supplies to last until the summer, NASA spokesman Jay Bolden said before today’s setback. – BLOOMBERG
