A Falcon 9 rocket aborted its launch just 2 seconds prior to liftoff Friday night. Credit: SpaceX
For the fourth time this week, a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral was stopped with seconds remaining in the countdown Friday night, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket automatically aborted its liftoff with a new GPS navigation satellite during the engine startup sequence.
The Falcon 9 rocket was just two seconds from launching the U.S. Space Force’s next GPS satellite at 9:43 p.m. EDT Friday (0143 GMT Saturday) when an automated abort halted the countdown.
“Five, four, three,” a member of SpaceX’s launch team called out on the countdown audio net. “And we have an abort. All agencies stand by.”
John Insprucker, a veteran SpaceX engineer providing commentary on the company’s launch webcast, confirmed the team scrubbed the launch attempt Friday night because there was not enough time in the 15-minute window to identify and resolve the problem.
“We got down to about T-minus 2 seconds approximately,” Insprucker said on SpaceX’s launch webcast. “We were just starting the engine ignition sequence when we had a hold. We then began safing (the rocket). We did not get into lighting all nine of the Merlin rocket engines.”
While it did not appear the engines fired, a flash of green light from the base of the rocket suggested the engines’ TEA-TEB ignitor source briefly activated before computers stopped the countdown at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.
“Right now the vehicle is being safed,” Insprucker said before signing off on the webcast. “There don’t appear to be any issues on the launch pad, but that does end our launch opportunity for tonight.”
While engineers started probing the cause of the hold Friday night, the launch team kicked off steps to drain the Falcon 9 rocket of its kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.
SpaceX had a backup launch opportunity reserved Saturday night at 9:39 p.m. EDT (0139 GMT Sunday) on the military-run Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral. But SpaceX did not confirm if teams would prepare for another launch attempt Saturday, or if the problem might cause a longer delay.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, tweeted that the Falcon 9 launch was aborted after an “unexpected pressure rise in the turbomachinery gas generator,” referring to equipment used on the rocket’s Merlin main engines.
In any event, forecasters at Cape Canaveral were predicting stormy weather Saturday night. In an outlook issued earlier Friday, they expected an 80 percent chance of unfavorable weather for a launch attempt Saturday night.
A Lockheed Martin-built GPS navigation satellite was ready for liftoff on top of the Falcon 9 rocket Friday night. It is the fourth in a new generation of GPS satellites with longer lifetimes, higher power, and more accurate navigation signals.
The GPS 3 SV04 spacecraft is set to join 31 operational GPS satellites in orbit 12,550 miles (20,200 kilometers) above Earth.
Friday’s launch attempt was the first for the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the GPS 3 SV04 satellite, but the abort echoed similar last-minute holds encountered by other launchers earlier in the week.
A Falcon 9 rocket with a brand new first stage booster is set to launch the U.S. Space Force’s fourth GPS 3-series navigation satellite from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX fueled a different Falcon 9 rocket two times this week on nearby pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, aiming to send the launcher into space with 60 more satellites for the company’s Starlink internet work.
But SpaceX scrubbed a launch attempt Monday morning just 31 seconds prior to liftoff due to poor weather. The Falcon 9 rocket was again fueled for launch Thursday morning on pad 39A, but SpaceX called off the mission with 18 seconds left in the countdown after detecting unexpected data from a ground sensor.
The same Starlink launch was initially planned for launch Sept. 17. But SpaceX delayed the mission to wait for improved sea conditions in the Falcon 9’s offshore recovery zone, where a drone ship is positioned in the Atlantic Ocean for landing of the the rocket’s first stage booster.
SpaceX aims to try again to launch the Falcon 9 rocket with the 60 Starlink satellites Monday at 7:51 a.m. EDT (1151 GMT).
Musk tweeted early Saturday that SpaceX is beginning a “broad review of launch site, propulsion, structures, avionics, range & regulatory constraints this weekend” in a bid to improve launch availability.
“I will also be at the Cape next week to review hardware in person,” Musk tweeted.
A Delta 4-Heavy rocket from United Launch Alliance, a rival of SpaceX in the U.S. launch services market, was also supposed to blast off from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday night. Its launch was also aborted in the final minute, when the computer-run countdown sequencer stopped the clock seven seconds before liftoff, a moment before the Delta 4-Heavy’s three main engines were programmed to ignite.
ULA has not announced a new launch date for the Delta 4-Heavy rocket, which is set to loft a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance, owner of the U.S. government’s fleet of intelligence-gathering spy satellites.
The Delta 4-Heavy rocket had also run into a series delays before the countdown abort Wednesday night. ULA announced Aug. 26 as the original launch date for the Delta 4-Heavy rocket and its NRO spy cargo, but the mission has been grounded repeatedly, primarily by problems with the Delta 4 launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
A countdown Aug. 29 stopped at T-minus 3 seconds, after one of the Delta 4-Heavy’s three main engines had ignited. ULA traced that problem to a pressure regulator on the launch pad.
Engineers refurbished the launch pad’s pressure regulators before setting a new target launch date Sept. 26. But the flight was again delayed to assess a potential issue with the launch pad’s swing arms designed to retract from the Delta 4-Heavy rocket at liftoff.
ULA teams contended with stormy weather during a pair of launch attempts Monday and Tuesday. After storms cleared from the spaceport Tuesday afternoon, technicians discovered a hydraulic leak on the ground system that rolls the launch pad’s mobile gantry into position for liftoff, forcing another canceled launch attempt before Wednesday night’s countdown ended in the final seconds.
Amid the string of scrubs at Cape Canaveral, another U.S. launcher was set to fire into orbit from Wallops Island, Virginia, with a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.
Northrop Grumman scrubbed the Antares rocket’s launch attempt Thursday in Virginia less than three minutes before takeoff. Officials later attributed the scrub to an issue with ground software, and a second countdown Friday culminated in a successful launch to begin a mission to deliver nearly 8,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the space station.
The Antares rocket blasted off at 9:16 p.m. EDT (0116 GMT), just 27 minutes before the Falcon 9’s abort Friday night.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
