SpaceX aborted its second shot at a potentially historic rocket landing

SpaceX aborted its Falcon9 rocket launch on Tuesday at 5:55 p.m. due to strong upper-level winds. This was the company’s second attempt after two days of delays. SpaceX is scheduled to attempt another launch Wednesday at 6:03 pm ET. NASA coverage will begin at 5 p.m. and the weather is expected to be more favorable. On Sunday the launch was scrubbed a couple of minutes before lift off because of issues with the Air Force radar malfunctioning, Elon Musk tweeted. On Tuesday there were no technical issues, but high-level winds would have made it too difficult for the spacecraft to safely maneuver.

Extreme wind shear over Cape Canaveral. Feels like a sledgehammer when supersonic in the vertical. Hope it changes.

SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday

The launch on Wednesday could be historic, but it’s not what goes up that’s exciting, but what will come down — SpaceX is set to make it’s second attempt at landing the rocket on a drone ship, so it can be recovered and reused for another launch. Five years ago, a landing attempt like this was unheard of. But SpaceX is changing things up and paving the way for a new era of reusable rockets. SpaceX has never recovered a rocket for reuse. But if everything goes according to plan on the next attempt and the rocket lands softly, it would be a game changer.

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