Flight International Online news 10:00GMT: The maiden flight of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) 570kg (1,254lb) to low Earth orbit Falcon 1 launcher has been delayed to mid-December following liquid oxygen (LOX) tank and computer problems.
Lift off was originally scheduled for 9pm GMT on 25 November from its launch pad at the US Army's Reagan test Range on Omelek island, one of the Marshall islands of Kwajalien Atoll.
But that was delayed by 24 hours due to US Army missile defence preparations.
Then at T-minus 10 minutes the countdown was put on hold.
"We experienced an anomaly with the main engine computer that requires further investigation and was arguably reason in and of itself to postpone the launch. We anticipate a new launch attempt in mid-December, depending on the timing of LOX re-supply from Hawaii - our LOX plant on Omelek can only produce about 1t per day," says SpaceX.
An auxiliary LOX fill tank had had a manual vent valve incorrectly set to vent. The time it took to correct the problem resulted in significant LOX boil off.
Falcon 1 is a two stage rocket powered by LOX and purified, rocket grade kerosene.
The customer for the mission is the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US Air Force Academy and the payload is its FalconSat-2 satellite.
ROB COPPINGER / LONDON
Source: Flight International
