The Falcon 9 booster for the Anasis-II mission is a history-making rocket. It was the booster used to deliver NASA astronauts to the ISS in May.
SpaceX
SpaceX has postponed a Falcon 9 launch three times in the span of five days, with the latest delay affecting the Anasis-II mission to send a South Korean military satellite to orbit. The company tweeted Monday that it was pushing back blast-off “to take a closer look at the second stage, swap hardware if needed.”
Standing down from tomorrow’s launch of ANASIS-II to take a closer look at the second stage, swap hardware if needed. Will announce new target launch date once confirmed on the Range
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 13, 2020
SpaceX also postponed its latest Starlink launch last Wednesday and then again on Saturday.
The Anasis-II mission will eventually lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. If it happens before the Starlink mission, which is currently awaiting a new launch date, it will be SpaceX’s 12th launch this year, the 90th flight of a Falcon 9 and the second overall for this particular booster, which was first flown in May to deliver NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station — the first time a commercial company has done so. Ergo, it’s got some history.
There is a backup launch window scheduled for the same time on July 15, but we’ll have to wait and see how quickly the technical issues can be worked out.
The payload, Anasis-II, is South Korea’s first military communications satellite. Because of its use in the military, there’s not a lot of information about Anasis-II, but for the fact it’s based off the Eurostar E3000 satellite bus, according to the Everyday Astronaut.
We’ll update this post once we have a new launch date.
Watch this:
NASA and SpaceX usher in new era of humans in space
13:12