The SES-9 satellite is ready to go. Will we see a launch this evening? (credit: SpaceX)
Here we go again. Four times SpaceX has attempted to launch the SES-9 communications satellite, and four times the rocket company had to scrub. For today's launch attempt, at 6:35 pm ET (11:35pm UK) weather does not appear to be a constraint, so we will again be watching primarily for fuel-loading issues.
The most dramatic of the four scrubs came on Sunday when, just as the launch countdown reached zero, flight computers on board the rocket halted the launch due to a low thrust detection. Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, said that issue was partly due to a 35-minute delay caused by a boat that strayed into the safety zone off the coast of Florida.
With its new, more powerful variant of the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX is having to handle this super-cold, dense propellant more carefully, and one of the things it is trying to do is deliver the right amount of fuel just before launch. Issues related to propellant loading caused the first two scrubs. The most recent scrub, on Tuesday, came due to high winds. SpaceX has been waiting for them to die down, and they now have.
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