SpaceX cancels its mission to the ISS due to hardware issues

Just 60 seconds before it was supposed to launch for a cargo resupply mission to the ISS, SpaceX aborted the mission for its Falcon 9 rocket. This launch wouldn’t have been SpaceX’s first mission to the ISS, but the return mission would’ve involved an unprecedented attempt at safely landing the rocket on a barge out at sea. Unfortunately, an issue with the “thrust vector control actuator” forced the mission to be placed on hold. 

One minute before SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was supposed to launch for a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station this morning, SpaceX aborted the mission. The launch would have been its fifth mission to ISS, but its first attempt at landing a rocket on a barge out at sea. But because of an issue with a “thrust vector control actuator,” the launch and historic landing have now been delayed. The next attempt will be Friday morning at 5:09AM ET, NASA said, “pending resolution of the issue.” The launch was halted by the flight team because a thrust vector control actuator wasn’t functioning correctly. The actuator was central to the landing mission, and would have triggered an automatic abort if the team hadn’t stepping in to stop the launch. This was the second delay for SpaceX’s landing mission. In December, SpaceX delayed a launch prior to the actual attempt because of a problem with routine test-firing of the engine.