spacetoday.net: Technical problems postpone SpaceX DSCOVR launch

Posted: Mon, Feb 9, 2015, 6:18 AM ET (1118 GMT)
Falcon 9 v1.1 before DSCOVR launch (NASA/KSC)

A problem with a tracking radar scrubbed the scheduled launch of a space and earth sciences satellite Sunday on a Falcon 9. Controllers scrubbed the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 from Cape Canaveral about two and a half minutes before liftoff because of a problem with an Air Force tracking radar at the spaceport. Earlier in the countdown, controllers also reported an issue with a telemetry transmitted on the first stage. The launch had been tentatively rescheduled for Monday but was later postponed to Tuesday at 6:05 pm EST (2305 GMT) because of poor weather forecast on Monday. The Falcon 9 is launching the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a joint mission of NASA, NOAA, and the Air Force to monitor space weather from the Earth-Sn L1 point and also take images of the Earth from that location. DSCOVR uses a spacecraft originally built in the late 1990s by NASA called Triana that was cancelled in 2001. SpaceX also plans to use the launch to attempt to land the first stage on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the efforts by SpaceX to develop a reusable first stage.