Dec. 21 (UPI) — One of two scheduled Falcon 9 rocket launches lifted off early Saturday with one going up in California but aborted in Florida.
The launch of four Astranis satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station originally was scheduled for about midnight Friday, with backup opportunities until 2:28 a.m. But just as the rocket’s nine engines fired, SpaceX officials announced that it would be aborted with no reason.
The satellites will be in a geostationary orbit 22,300 miles from the ground.
T-30 minutes until tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of the @Astranis: From One to Many mission. Weather is looking good for liftoff pic.twitter.com/ZTir8010Ye— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 21, 2024
SpaceX was aiming for an early Sunday launch with a 129-minute window but Saturday night postponed it indefinitely “after further inspections of the launch vehicle.”
After further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, teams are standing down from the launch of the @Astranis: From One to Many mission. A new target launch date will be shared once confirmed— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 22, 2024
At 3:34 a.m. PST Saturday, SpaceX launched its second, mid-inclination rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
It was more than half a year after Bandwagon-1 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in April.
About than eight minutes after liftoff, B1071 returned for a touchdown at Landing Zone 4. This was the 22nd booster landing at LZ-4 and the 386th booster landing to date.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/mYaDi1i4uK— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 21, 2024
Thirty satellites went up on Bandwagon-2, including payloads for South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development, Arrow Science and Technology, Exolaunch, HawkEye 360, Maverick Space Systems, Sidus Space, Tomorrow Companies Inc., True Anomaly and Think Orbital,” SpaceX wrote in a mission description.
SpaceX also is planning to launch more Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit. The launch window from midnight to 4 a.m. EST Monday from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.