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