Fog shrouds a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 19, 2023. Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX planned to launch 15 of its Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 04:40 AM ET (08:25 AM BST). But this was not destined to happen: the starting team canceled everything with five seconds before the end of the countdown.
Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellites interrupted 5 seconds before launch
SpaceX’s Zack Luppen noted during a live stream of the planned launch:
There are thousands of ways a launch can go wrong, and only one of them can go right. Given this, we are overly cautious on the ground. And if the team or the system notices anything that looks even slightly wrong, they will stop the countdown.
It is not clear what caused the launch abort. The weather was good enough for the launch despite heavy fog at Vandenberg. However, Luppen stressed that the Starlink rocket and satellites are “in good health.” We plan to try again in a day.
Note that less than a week ago, on July 14, SpaceX had already canceled the launch of Falcon 9 40 seconds before launch. Then SpaceX’s Atticus Vadera said very similar words after the launch team canceled the scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 with 54 Starlink satellites from the Space Force Base at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The next day, the rocket was launched into space without incident, and it completed its record-breaking 16th flight.
