Insiders say California-based SpaceX is gearing up once again for a Falcon 1 rocket launch from its Pacific island pad, in the wake of a static-fire test on Thursday. The Pentagon-funded test mission could go up as early as Monday. However, SpaceX's millionaire founder, Elon Musk, has never been shy about calling off a launch if something doesn't look right - and the company says it's still reviewing a minor issue that turned up during the test.
SpaceX's plans are a good illustration of the saying "Once burned, twice shy." The Falcon 1's maiden launch ended in fiery failure a little more than a year ago, due to a corroded nut that caused a fuel leak. This time around, the rocket will be carrying experimental payloads as well as sensors designed to record how the Falcon flies.
If SpaceX is successful with the Falcon 1, the company could become a low-cost competitor to the aerospace giants. A trouble-free liftoff also would give SpaceX a boost in its longer-range efforts to develop a new spaceship for space station deliveries - and eventually move on to interplanetary flight.
Update for 1 p.m. ET March 19: The countdown is still on for 7 p.m. ET Monday, SpaceX reports. Here's the Sunday night update from Musk, as reported on the company's Web site:
"The flight readiness review conducted tonight shows all systems are go for a launch attempt at 4 p.m. California time (11 p.m. GMT) tomorrow (Monday). The webcast can be seen at www.spacex.com/webcast.php and will start at T-60 minutes. Please check back for updates, as the launch will be postponed if we have even the tiniest concern."
The launch window should last about four hours, and if there is a postponement, liftoff could still take place later this week.
Update for 7:59 p.m. ET March 19: As Alan Sheets notes below, the launch attempt was aborted with just a little more than a minute to go. Gwynne Shotwell, vice president for business development, said the problem apparently had to do with "range source telemetry" - either telemetry was not being sent back from the Pacific range, or mission control was not receiving some data that was needed. Once the dust settles, we'll have a story up in the space news section.