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The mission patch for SpaceX's fifth operational space station resupply flight, a mission that will feature an unprecedented attempt to autonomously land the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster on a remotely-operated barge stationed east of Jacksonville. The test is a major step in the company's long-range plans to reduce launch costs by recovering and reusing rocket hardware. SpaceX

Last Updated Jan 6, 2015 6:36 AM EST

SpaceX engineers made final preparations Monday for the planned Tuesday launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 5,200 pounds of supplies, equipment and science gear bound for the International Space Station. But the launch attempt was aborted shortly before the scheduled liftoff.

The next target time is Friday at 9 a.m. EST.

The company was also going to attempt to land the booster's first stage on an off-shore barge, a key element in founder Elon Musk's long-range plans to lower costs by recovering, refurbishing and re-flying rocket hardware.

"We are extremely interested in the success of this flight in terms of getting cargo to the ISS," station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said. "But as an agency, we're also extremely proud of our affiliation with SpaceX and very excited about the steps they take to further spaceflight in general and reduce the cost."

Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance for SpaceX, stressed that while the landing test was an important goal for the company's long-range plans, "the main mission is absolutely to get cargo to the station and to make sure the station's supply (chain) is steady and stable and reliable."

Running three weeks late because of now-resolved problems encountered during an engine test firing last month, the 208-foot-tall Falcon 9 was scheduled for liftoff from complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:20:29 a.m. EST (GMT-5) Tuesday, roughly the moment Earth's rotation moves the booster into the plane of the space station's orbit. Forecasters predicted a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather.

It will be the company's fifth operational resupply mission under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA calling for 12 flights. It will be the first U.S. station supply flight since an Orbital Sciences Antares booster exploded seconds after liftoff Oct. 28, destroying a Cygnus cargo ship making the company's third flight under a separate $1.9 billion contract.

Orbital's Antares rocket is now grounded pending a switch to different engines, leaving SpaceX as NASA's only provider of U.S.-based resupply services. The Russians also launch supplies using unmanned Progress cargo ships and larger Japanese HTV supply ships fly once every year or so. Three Progress launches are planned between now and early August, along with an HTV launch on Aug. 17.

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SpaceX aborts Tuesday space station flight, booster landing try

Last Updated Jan 6, 2015 10:32 AM EST

Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 5,100 pounds of equipment and supplies bound for the International Space Station was called off Tuesday less than two minutes before liftoff because of apparent problems with the second stage engine steering system.

Trouble with a second stage actuator assembly apparently cropped up last month during or in the wake of a first-stage engine test firing, sources said. The test firing was cut short, presumably because of a problem with the first stage propulsion system. SpaceX, in keeping with company policy, did not provide any details.

In any case, launch eventually was delayed three weeks to allow time for a second test firing, to give the SpaceX launch team a break for the Christmas holidays and to allow temperature constraints related to the station's orbit to improve.

Sources said the suspect actuator assembly, one of two used to move the second stage engine nozzle for steering, was examined and given a clean bill of health. The Falcon 9's first- and second-stage systems performed normally during the second countdown and test firing, setting the stage for Tuesday's launch try.

A SpaceX spokesman said Tuesday, after the abort, that he could not address the engine test firing issue or provide any details about the second-stage steering system actuator. A senior SpaceX manager, asked about the test firing problem during a news conference Monday, did not provide any additional details other than saying the issue, whatever it was, had been resolved.

In a brief statement Tuesday, the company spokesman said only that during the terminal countdown "engineers observed drift on one of the two thrust vector actuators on the second stage that would likely have caused an automatic abort. Engineers called a hold in order to take a closer look."

Company founder Elon Musk said in a Twitter posting: "Need to investigate the upper stage Z actuator. Was behaving strangely. Next launch attempt on Friday."

Launch preparations went smoothly early Tuesday and the countdown ticked cleanly through fueling operations toward a planned liftoff at 6:20 a.m. (GMT-5). There were no known technical problems and the weather cooperated with fair conditions.

Then at T-minus one minute and 21 seconds, a SpaceX controller called a hold on the countdown audio net. To reach the space station, the rocket had to launch almost directly into the plane of the lab's orbit, an "instantaneous" launch window that left no margin for delay.

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SpaceX scrubs space station supply flight at last minute

The Government Accountability Office on Monday denied Sierra Nevada Corp.s challenge to a major NASA contract to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, saying the agency acted properly in issuing the $6.8 billion award last year.

Last fall, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to launch a series of missions that would allow the United States, for the first time since the space shuttle was retired three years ago, to launch astronauts into space from U.S. soil.

The so-called commercial crew contract would end U.S. reliance on Russia, which has been taking American astronauts to the space station at a cost of more than $70million a trip.

Boeings contract is worth as much as $4.2 billion; SpaceX, which said it could perform the work for far less, was awarded a contract valued at $2.6 billion.

In its filed protest, Sierra Nevada said that there had been serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process. Its own proposal was the second-lowest-priced, it argued, while it achieved mission suitability scores comparable to the other two proposals.

The company argued that by using its own special vehicle, the government could have saved up to $900 million.

Unlike SpaceX and Boeing, which would use capsules to dock to the space station, Sierra Nevada proposed using a reusable miniature shuttle, or space plane, called the Dream Chaser. The craft provides a wider range of capabilities and value, Sierra Nevada had said.

In announcing the GAO decision, Ralph White, the agencys managing associate general counsel, said that NASA recognized Boeings higher price but also considered Boeings proposal to be the strongest of all three proposals in terms of technical approach, management approach and past performance, and to offer the crew transportation system with most utility and highest value to the government.

The agency also found several favorable features in Sierra Nevadas proposal, but ultimately concluded that SpaceXs lower price made it a better value.

Sierra Nevada is still evaluating the decision, the company said in a statement Monday. While the outcome was not what SNC expected we maintain our belief that the Dream Chaser spacecraft is technically very capable, reliable and was qualified to win based on NASAs high ratings of the space system.

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GAO denies Sierra Nevadas legal challenge to NASA space contract

SpaceX called off its early morning rocket launch to the International Space Station, citing a last minute malfunction.

NASA said the SpaceX team had detected an actuator drift, causing the launch to be scrubbed. The next possible launch time is Friday at 2:09 a.m. Pacific time.

The launch byElon Musk's SpaceX could ultimately be most notable for what happens as it returns to Earth.

Besides delivering 5,000 pounds of food, equipment and experiments to the space station, SpaceX engineers are planning to attempt what has never been done. Instead of letting the rocket's towering first stage disintegrate upon reentry to the atmosphere, they plan to land it on a barge floating in the ocean.

The rocket was originally scheduled for liftoff at 3:20 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It's the first such mission since Oct. 28, when a supply ship that another company, Orbital Sciences, was operating for NASA exploded just seconds after leaving the launchpad.

Typically, the rocket's first stage, which includes the engines needed to blast it to space, is allowed to fall back to Earth after separating from its payload. After burning up in the atmosphere, it lands in pieces in the ocean or remote places.

But Musk wants to land the 14-story first stage, which includes nine engines, and reuse it on a future flight.

If successful, the feat could transform space travel by sharply lowering the cost.

"To say it would be revolutionary is absolutely true," said Charles Lurio, a Boston-based space analyst who publishes the Lurio Report. "It could be a race toward the bottom in terms of cost."

The space shuttle was reusable, Lurio said, but it was extraordinarily expensive to rebuild and refurbish once it was back on Earth.

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SpaceX postpones rocket launch due to 'actuator drift' problem

The launch of a resupply mission bound for the International Space Station was called off less than two minutes before liftoff early Tuesday after a malfunction cropped up related to the motor on the rocket's second stage.

The rocket, Space Exploration Technology Corporation's Falcon 9, signaled a problem with one of two actuators critical for steering the second stage to keep it on course. The actuators move the second-stage motor's exhaust nozzle to change the direction of the motor's thrust.

If this mission had been a satellite launch rather than a rendezvous mission, in principle it might have been possible to troubleshoot the problem and launch later in the morning. But the demands of a rendezvous with the space station, which orbited directly overhead shortly before launch, meant that the SpaceX team had to launch at 6:20 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The malfunction occurred too close to launch to allow time to investigate the cause. The next opportunity for a launch comes at 5:09 a.m. Friday morning.

The Dragon cargo capsule atop the rocket is carrying some 2.5 tons of food, spare parts, experiments, and tools that station crew members will need to install new docking adapters to the station. On its return, Dragon is expected to carry nearly 2 tons of cargo back to Earth.

The launch also aims to make the first attempt at bringing Falcon 9's spent first stage to a controlled landing on something other than the open ocean. SpaceX has acquired a floating landing platform on which it will attempt to land the first stage. The experiment represents a step toward SpaceX's goal of building a fully reusable rocket,.

The platform, known as the autonomous spaceport drone ship, sports powerful thrusters to keep it in one spot. In addition, the Falcon 9 has been redesigned. Part of that redesign added landing legs to the first stage, as well as four adjustable fins that resemble oversized rectangular tennis racquets. Through carefully orchestrated movements, these gridded fins are designed to help keep the first stage on course during its descent to the drone ship.

The drone ship's landing surface measures 100 feet by 300 feet, a tiny target to hit from 150 miles up. Previous experiments with the soft-landing system, which ended up in the Atlantic Ocean by design, brought the first stage to its landing spot, give or take about six miles. The new system is designed to land the stage within about 30 feet of the landing surface's center.

SpaceX gives the experiment a 50-50 chance of succeeding on this first try, noted Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president for mission assurance, late Monday afternoon. Even so, those were pretty good odds given the goal, he acknowledged.

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SpaceX scrubs rocket launch: why it must wait until Friday to try again

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLASpaceX called off its planned flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday because of rocket trouble.

The unmanned Falcon rocket was supposed to blast off before sunrise. But the countdown was halted with just over a minute remaining. The soonest SpaceX can try again is Friday morning, provided it can fix the problem by then.

As a result, a science project dreamed up by a group of students in central British Columbia that exploded on a rocket launching pad almost two months ago is on hold again.

Officials said the problem was with motors needed for second-stage rocket thrust steering. If controllers had not aborted the launch, computers would have done so closer to flight time, NASA launch commentator George Diller said.

Four boys from McGowan Park Elementary School in Kamloops, B.C., had won a contest to have their experiment join 17 other student projects from across North American on a trip to the orbiting station.

But the amateur experiments along with a payload of supplies destined for the space station were destroyed on Oct. 28 when a NASA-contracted rocket exploded in a spectacular fireball in eastern Virginia.

If and when the Kamloops students experiment gets to the station, it will examine how the zero-gravity environment of space affects the growth of crystals.

The students prepared silicon tubes containing solutions that, when mixed, cause crystals to form. On the space station, astronauts would remove small clips keeping the solutions apart. When the tubes returned, the students would analyze the crystals and compare them to crystals grown on Earth.

The Dragon capsule aboard the Falcon contains more than 2,000 kg of supplies and experiments ordered up by NASA. Thats the primary objective for SpaceX. But the California-based company plans to attempt an even more extraordinary feat once the Dragon is on its way: flying the booster rocket to a platform in the Atlantic. No one has ever pulled off such a touchdown.

SpaceXs billionaire founder and chief executive Elon Musk said recovering and reusing rockets could speed up launches and drive down costs.

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Space X calls off rocket launch, B.C. students experiment on hold again