Faulty Check Valve Root Cause of SpaceX Abort; Retry May 22
SpaceX just announced that it has discovered the root cause of the failure this morning of its Falcon 9 rocket. The launch was aborted at 4:55 am ET with less than one second to go before liftoff.
A faulty check valve was to blame, according to a press release emailed by the company about 6:00 pm ET: “During rigorous inspections of the engine, SpaceX engineers discovered a faulty check valve on the Merlin engine. We are now in the process of replacing the failed valve. Those repairs should be complete tonight. We will continue to review data on Sunday. If things look good, we will be ready to attempt to launch on Tuesday, May 22nd at 3:44 AM Eastern.”
Earlier today, SpaceX and NASA said another opportunity exists on May 23 at 3:22 am ET, although they did not immediately know if the range is available that day.
Stay tuned for more updates from SpaceX and NASA.
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