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The planned launch Monday morning of the Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Base has been delayed to give the launch team time to complete its inspections. The SpaceX rocket is expected to carry dozens of satellites in space.
The takeoff, scheduled between 10:31 and 11 am Monday, will be delayed less than a week, according to sources close to the mission.
"Quit Monday's attempt to launch Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to conduct additional pre-flight inspections," said SpaceX Twitter page. "Once completed, we will confirm a new launch date."
This delay comes after SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday in Florida, putting a communications satellite into orbit for the Qatar Army.
A few hours after this launch, SpaceX successfully conducted a static firing test at Vandenberg, which laid the groundwork for a launch.
But on Saturday, several sources revealed that the launch had been delayed – perhaps five to six days.
Aboard the Falcon rocket, SSO-A SmallSat Express, based at Spaceflight Industries and based in Washington, will consist of 64 satellites from 34 organizations.
The flight will include 15 microsats and 49 cubesats of commercial organizations and government agencies.
A set of incinerated human remains, belonging to Elysium Space, based in San Francisco, constitutes the payload of a satellite bringing space burials to Vandenberg. The probe will carry representative samples of cremains for about 100 people.
Other satellites will test the technology for agencies or government institutions.
For example, the rocket will carry the Air Force STPSat-5, one of the Department of Defense's commercial flight missions.
STPSat-5 is a science and technology mission designed to house five small military payloads to demonstrate the capabilities of low-cost spacecraft to meet the needs of low-Earth-orbit missions, according to the Space & Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles. Base of the air force.
Several sites around the Lompoc Valley offer views of VAFB rocket launches.
On launch day, Jalama Beach County Park, south of Vandenberg, will be evacuated for several hours for security reasons.
In the light of day, the flight of the Falcon 9 rocket should not create the kind of celestial spectacle observed during the take-off at dusk and the return flight in early October.
– Janene Scully, editor-in-chief of Noozhawk County North, can be reached at . (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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