Last-second launch delay for SpaceX at historic moon pad

The space liner’s giant booster will lift off with the crew ship from the historic launch pad and deliver it to a parking orbit where it will wait for what SpaceX hopes will become a routine operation by then: the quick return and reflight of the rocket’s booster.

The day has finally come when SpaceX, the private spaceflight company, will launch its landmark Falcon 9 from the historic NASA launch pad LC-39A. The pad is part of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and has been home to the biggest space missions of the past 50 years.

It was the pad for a number of NASA’s most important missions – from its early days sending people to space, to the three decades of the space shuttle program.

In a series of tweets, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave the reason for the last-minute postponement – and confirmed that he personally made the decision to scrub. Boeing, which along with SpaceX is under contract by NASA to fly astronauts to the space station, has revamped Launch Complex 41, and has taken over a former shuttle processing facility. This one is carrying 5,490 pounds of science equipment and materials, crew supplies, and space station hardware. The astronauts will later load up the capsule with experiments to be returned to Earth and recovered by scientists after landing.

NASA is working in conjunction with researcher Dr. Anita Goel to understand more about how superbugs mutate by observing it in a zero-gravity environment. The company successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft that is on its way to the International Space Station. The complex also was used to launch the Apollo moon missions.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule liftoff on Sunday, February 19. Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and chief designer, said readings showing the position of a piston in the Falcon 9’s second stage TVC system were not what engineers expected.

NASA provider SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are vertical at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Feb. 17, 2017. That issue appeared to be resolved Saturday morning.

Where to watch live: Launch will be streamed live on NASA TV and SpaceX’s hosted webcast on YouTube. But problems during the first launch off a heavily modified launch pad were not unexpected and NASA approved the decision to delay. But on Friday, the SpaceX president, Gwynne Shotwell, told reporters that the company had delayed the project for a scheduled 2020 launch.

Goel, however, is super curious to know what the results of the mission would be and also further stated that anything or any innovation in space will bring new understanding in several fields of life.