Replace July 20, 11:18 a.m. EDT (1518 UTC): SpaceX aborts the mission after ignition.
SpaceX suffered its second launch scrub in lower than every week after its Falcon 9 rocket didn’t launch from Vandenberg House Power Base on Monday.
On-screen telemetry graphics confirmed all 9 Merlin engines briefly ignited earlier than shortly shutting down. SpaceX ended its broadcast previous to providing an evidence and didn’t instantly share additional particulars on social media.
“Standing down from in the present day’s Starlink launch; automobile and payload stay secure,” SpaceX wrote in a quick submit on X.
The Starlink 17-39 mission was set so as to add one other two dozen of SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini broadband web satellites to its huge low Earth orbit constellation. Liftoff from House Launch Complicated 4 East was timed for 7:49 a.m. PDT (10:49 a.m. EDT / 1449 UTC).
The Starlink 17-39 mission was set to launch utilizing the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail quantity B1082. This was going to be its twenty third flight after launching missions, like NROL-145, USSF-62, and OneWeb Launch 20.
Uncommon setbacks
The Monday morning mission was scheduled to be the eighty fifth Falcon 9 rocket launch of the 12 months and the 667th to this point.
The final time the rocket is believed to have skilled an abort after engine ignition was again on June 14, 2024 in the course of the Starlink 10-2 mission launch try. That mission finally launched on June 23, however utilizing a distinct first stage booster.
SpaceX hasn’t mentioned if it might want to substitute the booster used on the Starlink 17-39 launch try (B1082).
This launch abort got here simply days after the same post-ignition abort of SpaceX’s Starship-Tremendous Heavy rocket from down at its Starbase amenities in southern Texas. The corporate needed to scrub the Flight 13 launch try and founder Elon Musk introduced that a minimum of two Raptor engines would must be “eliminated and changed.”
SpaceX is presently concentrating on Thursday, July 23, for its subsequent try to launch the Starship Flight 13 mission, however a tropical disturbance within the Gulf of Mexico could additional delay that check flight.
Starship and the Tremendous Heavy booster each use Raptor engines, fueled by liquid methane, whereas the Falcon 9 rocket is powered by kerosene-fueled Merlin engines.
