SpaceX had plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California on Tuesday night before the mission was aborted.
The rocket was aborted five seconds before a scheduled lift-off time of 10:25 p.m. PDT.
The rocket was carrying a group of Starlink satellites into orbit. Takeoff had already been pushed back from the initial 9:34 p.m. time before the mission was officially ended.
“The vehicle is safe and we are proceeding with the offloading sequence,” the launch director was heard saying moments after the abort was called.
A second attempt at a launch is scheduled for Wednesday night at 9:09 p.m. PT on July 19.
“Keep in mind that the purpose of the countdown is to help us catch potential issues prior to flight and there are thousands of ways a launch can go wrong and only one way it can go right,” said the launch host. “Given that, we are overly cautious on the ground and if the team or the vehicle sees anything that just looks even slightly off, they’ll stop the countdown.”
Although no official cause for the called-off mission was given, the host noted the vehicle and the payload are “in good health,” before ending the stream.
According to the company, 15 satellites were scheduled to be carried to low-Earth orbit during Tuesday night’s mission.
Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite network designed to bring low-cost internet service to rural/remote communities.
After previous successful launches, Starlink now boasts over 4,200 functional satellites orbiting the Earth, according to CNET. The launches are part of the company’s goal to build a giant constellation of broadband satellites across the globe.
Following stage separation after liftoff, the Falcon’s reusable booster is scheduled to land back on the spaceport drone ship, “Of Course I Still Love You,” in the Pacific Ocean.
This particular Falcon 9 rocket has completed nine liftoffs and landings so far.
The Falcon 9 rocket is the “world’s first orbital class reusable rocket,” according to SpaceX. The reusable vessel is designed to safely transport people and payloads into the Earth’s orbit and beyond.
So far, the entire fleet of Falcon 9 rockets has clocked in 246 total launches, 207 landings and 180 reflights.
The aborted mission can be seen in the video player above.