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The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is seen outside the company’s hangar at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
SpaceX
SpaceX and the US Space Force thought they were ready to launch the X-37B military space shuttle this week, but teams in Florida need to strike back The Falcon Heavy rocket rolls into its hangar for servicing.
This is expected to push back the launch until the end of December, possibly longer. SpaceX and Space Force officials did not provide details about the problems causing the delay.
SpaceX halted a launch attempt Monday night at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to fix a problem with a ground system. A senior Space Force official told Ars on Wednesday that other issues are causing the launch delay.
“We are working on some special problems with our SpaceX team that will take some time to improve,” said Col. James Horne, deputy director of the Space Force’s Assured Access to Space directorate. We have not given a specific launch date, but we will have to go back into the HIF (Horizontal Integration Facility) and work on some things on the rocket.
Horne, a senior commander on the Space Force team that oversees military launches like this one, said the equipment problem on the ground that prevented Monday night’s liftoff could be improve immediately on Wednesday. But it will take time to resolve other issues that he refused to reveal. “We found some things that need to be investigated, that’s what is causing the delay,” he said.
SpaceX is similarly vague in its explanation for the delay. In a post on the social media platform X, SpaceX said that the company is standing down from the launch this week to “conduct additional checks.”
There is a chance that the Falcon Heavy will return in late December or early next year. A SpaceX repair ship that was on site for the Falcon Heavy launch in the Atlantic Ocean has returned to land, announcing that the launch will be canceled happen soon.
“We have to look at the schedule and balance it with all the other challenges,” Horne said. “But I hope we can finish it before the end of the year.”
The moon’s launch date is in jeopardy
When ready to fly, the Falcon Heavy launch and the X-37B military aircraft appear to be high priorities in the launch schedule of SpaceX. Military launch lines, like the one at Cape Canaveral, exist primarily to serve national security, although they get more use from commercial space missions.
Depending on how long it is delayed, this military announcement may affect many of SpaceX’s missions that are currently scheduled to fly in January. Most importantly, the Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from the same platform in January as the first Moon probe from Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based company contracted to provide scientific funding to on the moon for NASA.
This robotic mission was one of the first two spacecraft developed by the US to attempt to land on the Moon since the last Apollo landing in 1972. The Intuitive Machines mission, named IM-1, It is planned to start in a narrow window from January 12-16.
A few days earlier, at the same time on January 8, another commercial lunar probe from Astrobotic is scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral to the first test of the new Vulcan rocket of the United Launch Alliance. The Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines missions can be launched only a few days each month due to the limitations allowed by the equipment and lighting conditions at their landing site. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was supposed to launch on December 24, but ULA pushed back the launch to conduct more tests on the Vulcan rocket.
The Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are taking off at Cape Canaveral, waiting for their turn at the Florida airport’s busy show.
The IM-1 mission was supposed to take off from Earth from Launch Complex 39A, the same place previously used by the Saturn V rocket and spacecraft. SpaceX has equipped the Intuitive Machines lander with cryogenic propellant before launch, a capability that will not be available on the next space launch. SpaceX in Florida. Also, LC-39A is the only model capable of supporting Falcon Heavy missions.
It usually takes several weeks to restore the LC-39A between Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 launches. The Falcon Heavy is more powerful, with three Falcon 9 primary boosters linked together to carry larger payloads into orbit.
A private astronaut mission managed by Axiom Space is also in the mix, with a launch date set for January 9. This mission, called Ax-3, will carry commercial astronauts. four aboard the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft on an approximately two-week trip to the International Space Station. Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management at SpaceX, said the company has not decided which pad Ax-3 will launch from.
All of SpaceX’s crewed missions so far have taken off from the LC-39A, but the company recently built a tower and arms that would allow the crew to leave the space. Launch Complex 40 nearby. -39A, which is needed for some of the company’s most important missions.
The LC-39A will remain the primary platform for SpaceX’s mission crew, Walker said Wednesday, but he added: “Having a second rocket available it allows us to respond to customer needs and increase demand by placing a dragon on the SLC-40 when the need arises.”
It’s a good problem to have so many interesting payloads competing for a launch slot with SpaceX, but the tyranny of physics and technical constraints can mean that One of these missions must wait for a ride in space.