Fueling problem scrubs second SpaceX launch attempt

 James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY

SpaceX scrubbed a second Falcon 9 launch attempt from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday. Video by Emre Kelly / Wochit. Wochit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket still on the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 40 after a scrub for Thursday evening's second attempt to launch the SES-9 satellite.(Photo: Craig Rubadoux/FLORIDA TODAY)

Fueling issues on Thursday scrubbed SpaceX's second try in as many days to launch a Falcon 9 rocket and commercial communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

No new target launch date was immediately set.

"Teams are reviewing the data and next available launch date," SpaceX said in a statement.

SpaceX is struggling with a new fueling system for a version of the Falcon 9 flying for just the second time.

Referred to as an "upgraded" or "full thrust" Falcon 9, the 230-foot rocket requires liquid oxygen to be chilled to colder temperatures than usual, near its freezing point.

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SpaceX rocket on the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SpaceX is targeting a 6:46 p.m. Wednesday blastoff of a Falcon 9 rocket for European satellite operator SES.   MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY

The denser propellant gives the rocket added thrust, contributing to what SpaceX says is a 33 percent overall increase in its performance compared to the previous version.

But during countdowns Wednesday and Thursday, SpaceX reported trouble keeping the "deeply cryogenic" propellant cold enough.

Although Thursday's launch window lasted 96 minutes, it turned out SpaceX really only had one opportunity during that window.

If any problem arose, SpaceX said the liquid oxygen would have to be drained and re-loaded, a process that would take too long.

"It takes us probably more than the time we have in the window to offload the cold liquid oxygen and load a new batch on board," SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said during the company's countdown Webcast.

The weather was "go" for launch, but with under two minutes left in the countdown, a member of the launch team called out "Hold, hold, hold," and the mission's second launch attempt was over.

On top of the rocket is the SES-9 satellite, one of three that SpaceX hopes to launch this year for Luxembourg-based SES, one of the world's largest satellite operators with more than 50 in orbit.

The SES-9 satellite is the heaviest yet that a Falcon 9 will lift to an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator, where it will provide high-definition video and high-speed data services in the Asia-Pacific region.

After the launch, SpaceX planned to attempt an experimental landing of the Falcon 9's first stage on a barge stationed 400 miles down range in the Atlantic Ocean, but has said success is unlikely.

Part of the benefit the upgraded, more powerful rocket is supposed to be that SpaceX will have more chances to recover boosters even on missions launching to very high orbits.

SpaceX believes recovering and reusing rockets will lead to a revolutionary drop in launch costs.

The company landed its first booster successfully in December at Cape Canaveral, after the first launch of this new-model Falcon 9.

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