Cape Canaveral: SpaceX had to call off Sunday's planned launch of a deep-space observatory and a revolutionary rocket-landing attempt after a critical radar-tracking system failed.
The launch had been targeted for 6:10 p.m. EST (2310 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. But a problem emerged with an Air Force radar system needed to track the rocket in flight about 2.5 minutes before liftoff.
The launch has been postponed to Monday (EST (2307 GMT) informed NASA launch commentator Michael Curie.
The rocket carries the Deep Space Climate Observatory, nicknamed DSCOVR, a partnership of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
DSCOVR is expected to replace a 17-year-old satellite monitoring for potentially dangerous solar storms. Tsunamis of charged particles from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, can disrupt GPS and other satellite signals, block radiocommunications and impact electric power grids on Earth, NOAA said.
Air Force tracking radar went down. Launch postponed to same time tomorrow.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2015
