SpaceX Falcon 9 Italian Satellite Launch Delayed Once Again—Cruise Ship in Hazard Area?

SpaceX Falcon 9's Italian satellite launch is delayed once again, which is the fourth time that its liftoff has been pushed back for this mission.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Italian Satellite Launch Delayed

As per a report by Space.com, the space exploration firm of billionaire Elon Musk decided to push the launch of its mission to fly the Italian Earth-observation satellite to orbit.

However, unlike its previous hiccups, the weather has nothing to do with the latest delay of the Falcon 9 mission.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to lift off the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite from its facilities in the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

However, the cruise ship figured in a mess, further pushing back the flight of the Falcon 9 rocket.

To be precise, the cruise ship went to the "no-go zone" on Cape Canaveral, entering the flight path of the SpaceX rocket.

Initially, the launch engineers of SpaceX waited for the Coast Guard to rectify the mess at first. However, the window deadline for the launch has already concluded with the cruise ship still at the hazard zone.

As such, the engineers of the liftoff had to push the launch of the Falcon 9 once again.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Italian Satellite Launch New Launch Date

According to a report by FloridaToday, the team behind the Falcon 9 launch has scheduled the fifth launch of the Italian Space Agency satellite to a much later date, or on Jan. 31, Monday, to be precise.

However, if the mission still does not make it on Jan. 31, SpaceX has to move forward with another mission with a national defense payload at the Vandenberg Space Force Base on Feb. 2.

After which, SpaceX will go through its mission for the Italian satellite payload. By then, it would be its sixth launch attempt.

SpaceX Italian Satellite Launch Delays

Space.com noted in the same report that the past three delays of the SpaceX mission were due to bad weather. On the other hand, the fourth liftoff attempt saw favorable clouds from Mother Nature. However, it still got delayed due to the problem with the cruise ship.

The production manager of SpaceX, Jessie Anderson, said in a statement that the weather is predictable and favorable as well for the fifth attempt of the Italian satellite mission.

Italian Satellite Mission

It is worth adding that the Italian satellite payload of SpaceX is made possible by the Italian Space Agency, the Italian Ministry of Education, the Italian Ministry of Defense, and the Universities and Scientific Research.

In total, there are a total of two satellites that seek to look into Earth using synthetic aperture radar technology.

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Written by Teejay Boris