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UPDATE February 18, 2017 0714 hrs Pacific: The launch was aborted a few minutes before liftoff and will be rescheduled for tomorrow, as announced by SpaceX via Twitter:
Standing down to take a closer look at positioning of the second stage engine nozzle. 9:38am ET tomorrow is next earliest launch opportunity
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 18, 2017
SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket at 10:01 am Eastern today from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
A successful liftoff will be represent a significant achievement for Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and private space companies generally, as it continues to become both a partner and rival to government-funded space programs. The Falcon 9 will use the same launchpad as the famed Apollo missions. The launch pad was also used for NASA’s Space Shuttle program from 1981 to 2011, and has not been used since.
Today’s Falcon 9 mission will carry supplies to the International Space Station, the 10th time it has done so since it was founded in 2002. In September 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded during lift-off test but the company completed a subsequent attempt in January.
Watch a live stream of the launch here.
If needed, a backup launch is scheduled for 9:38 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.
