SpaceX announced late today that today's Falcon 1 launch has been scrubbed. According to SpaceX:
"The reason for the delay was an auxiliary liquid oxygen (LOX) fill tank had a manual vent valve incorrectly set to vent. The time it took to correct the problem resulted in significant LOX boiloff and loss of helium, and it was the latter that caused the launch abort. LOX is used to chill the helium bottles, so we lose helium if there is no LOX to cool the bottles."
"Although we were eventually able to refill the vehicle LOX tanks, the rate at which we could add helium was slower than the rate at which LOX was boiling away. There was no way to close the gap, so the launch had to be called off. In addition, we experienced an anomaly with the main engine computer that requires further investigation and was arguably reason in and of itself to postpone launch."
The next launch date (TBA) will be in mid-December.
Prelaunch - November 26th. The delayed dawn of a new era.
Here are articles leading up to today's attempted launch that tell the story in greater detail.
June 28, 2005 - Space Exploration Technology Corporation - SpaceX is ready to Launch
September 09, 2005 - SpaceX Announces the Falcon 9 - A Fully Reusable Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle
October 08, 2005 - The Space Age of SpaceX - Falcon I Prepares For Liftoff
(Stick around kids, we're not finished.)
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