By Scott Powers, The Orlando Sentinel –
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The SpaceX attempt to launch its Falcon 9 rocket Saturday carrying a capsule to the International Space Station has failed and another shot could be tried Tuesday morning.
The countdown went to zero and ignition of all nine engines began, with flame curling beneath the rocket. But it quickly extinguished, as a computer detected that one of the engines was running too hot, and ignition was shut down with a half-second to spare.
Liftoff did not occur and the rocket remained standing on the launch pad at Canaveral Air Force Station Saturday morning.
The failed 4:55 a.m. launch means that SpaceX cannot try again before Tuesday at 3:44 a.m., and that’s only if the Saturday morning attempt does not reveal any major problems.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and NASA officials hope that the problem can be fixed in time for Tuesday. A Wednesday window also has opened, at 3:22 a.m.
The problem came on engine 5. The computer detected chamber pressure was rising too high during the ignition. That indicated it was running too hot, which indicated there was too low a level of fuel in the combustion, Shotwell said. “This does not look like a sensor failure,” she said.
The 180-foot-tall Falcon 9 needed all nine engines for a successful launch, so Shotwell characterized the abort as “not a failure.”
“We aborted with purpose,” she said. “It would be a failure if we had lifted off with one engine trending in this direction.”
This was to be the start of the world’s new space race. SpaceX and NASA want the Dragon capsule atop the rocket to rendezvous with the International Space Station, and possibly deliver a half-ton of supplies.
If that yet occurs, it would mark the first time a private company had delivered goods to the station, and would open a new era in which SpaceX and other companies start replacing much of what NASA’s space shuttles had done before the shuttle program was terminated last summer.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket could be rolled back into the hangar for inspection and repairs, including possible disassembly. In fact, SpaceX has a second Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center and could swap the engine 5s if necessary. Shotwell said there is a chance even that could be done before Tuesday.
This would have been the third launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. The first two also were aborted on the first try.
The glitch and computer scrub surprised everyone. At Kennedy Space Center, and on NASA TV, the commentator George Diller counted down, “Three, two, one, zero and (pause) lift-off. We’ve had a cut-off. Lift-off did not occur. We’ve got a launch abort.”
As thousands watched for the pre-dawn launch and heard the countdown reach zero, nothing happened.
“I was looking for the first motion, which I thought I saw. But it cut off at a half a second,” Diller said later. “I thought it was out of here. But the first motion sensors indicated it had not moved.”
