BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — SpaceX aborted its mission to launch a batch of Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday morning just seconds before it was set to launch.
Officials said the abort was triggered due to “out-of-family data during engine power check."
The satellites are meant to help improve internet access across the world. The company tweeted that it is standing down and will announce another launch date soon.
Standing down today; standard auto-abort triggered due to out of family data during engine power check. Will announce next launch date opportunity once confirmed on the Range
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 15, 2020
This would be the sixth launch of this kind from SpaceX.
The company was planning to launch 60 satellites from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39-A.
The satellites will be placed in orbit about 15 minutes after launch. SpaceX hopes to land the Falcon 9 safely on the drone ship over the Atlantic Ocean called Of Course I Still Love You.
SpaceX already has 300 Starlink satellites orbiting in space, first launching in May 2019. Ideally, SpaceX would like 12,000 satellites orbiting Earth by the mid-2020s.
Cox Media Group
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