Scrub! SpaceX crews have stood down from an early-morning Wednesday attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Why? In an 11:31 p.m. EST Tuesday tweet, SpaceX officials announced they were standing down “due to off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load.”
The new target liftoff time is 1:05 a.m. Thursday. Odysseus, the private company’s moon lander, will launch via NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Artemis campaign.
After stage separation, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster will target landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — triggering sonic booms on the Space Coast.
The Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron pegs the odds of “go for launch” weather at 90% for the new Thursday target time. Thick cloud layers are the primary concern, along with a low-to-moderate risk of upper-level wind shear.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
Space is important to us and that’s why we’re working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.
Credit: Source link
