SpaceX Cancels Second Launch For The Day After Flying Rocket To ~7,000 Kilometers

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SpaceX missed a rare opportunity earlier today to launch back-to-back missions after the firm scrubbed the launch of its largest operational rocket, the Falcon Heavy. The Heavy was slated to take off from NASA's Kennedy Launch Center in Florida. Still, SpaceX scrubbed the launch just one minute before launch when the rocket's internal systems typically take over control and evaluate it before lighting the engines. The company's previous launch took place from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and the mission was a two-hour-long affair that deployed SES's satellites to medium Earth orbit (MEO).

The SES mission was a standard affair as the Falcon 9 blasted off from the pad in the evening local time. However, this time around, the Falcon 9's second stage had its work cut out since the satellites had to be placed much higher in orbit than the rocket typically does. This mission profile saw the Falcon 9 second stage separate from the rocket a little over two and a half minutes after liftoff, ejecting the stage at an altitude of 69 kilometers and a speed higher than 8.000 kilometers per hour.

From then on, the second stage's Merlin 1D vacuum engine fired for almost six minutes to accelerate the rocket to a speed of a stunning 26,674 kilometers per hour and an altitude of 164 kilometers before shutting down right as the first stage landed. The second stage continued its journey for roughly eleven minutes when its engine fired up once again for the second time. This burn lasted for half a minute, further accelerating the rocket to 30,928 kilometers per hour and raising its