NASA has delayed the liftoff of five satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base until Friday afternoon, pushing back its original target date for the third time.
The new launch window opens at 7:09 p.m. on Friday, and the team plans to return the first-stage booster to Vandenberg after the mission. The satellites are part of the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions, which aim to study the universe and the sun’s corona.
The delay occurred due to the availability of a launch opportunity on the Western Range, but NASA officials didn’t specify what conflict existed for Vandenberg’s launch schedule. The team now has an extra day to complete vehicle processing and prelaunch checkouts.
This is the fifth delay in three months for the mission, which initially targeted February 27. SpaceX delayed the launch multiple times before the latest postponement. However, the cause of the delay isn’t related to troubles following a recent Starlink launch from Florida.
In that incident, an off-nominal fire damaged one of the booster’s landing legs after it landed successfully at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. SpaceX officials stated that they will use the data to make their rockets even more reliable on ascent and landing.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) didn’t require an investigation into the landing trouble, similar to a previous incident where pieces of a Falcon upper stage landed in Poland after a Vandenberg launch.
Source: https://www.noozhawk.com/spacex-rocket-with-nasa-missions-slips-another-2-days