SpaceX was forced to abort the company’s highly-anticipated attempt at landing its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the ocean one minute before launch due an issue with a “thrust vector control actuator.”
The launch represented SpaceX’s fifth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station but unfortunately the historic landing will have to be delayed until Friday morning at 5:09AM ET, according to NASA.
Since a thrust vector control actuator was malfunctioning, and the actuator was pertinent to the landing mission, SpaceX went ahead and stopped the launch because the issue with the actuator would have triggered an automatic abort regardless.
Here is Elon Musk’s tweet regarding the incident:
The public will have to wait a few more days to see if Musk and SpaceX can successfully complete the amazing feat of landing a reusable, 14 story-tall rocket on a 300 ft by 100 ft barge in the middle of the ocean.
A successful landing would be extremely encouraging when it comes to saving money on space flights and salvaging rockets in general.
