The troubleshooters at Cape Canaveral continue to work on the July 4th holiday after the second Space X launch attempt in a row got stopped in its tracks.
The private space company has a Falcon 9 rocket ready to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center to carry a communications satellite into orbit but technical issues and weather prevented the payload from getting off the ground Sunday or Monday.
While the weather forecast looked favorable to try for an Independence Day launch, Space X has instead decided to spend Tuesday inspecting its rocket, payload and other systems around Launch Pad 39A.
As the original countdown clock ticked on Sunday, guidance computer systems tripped an automatic cutoff. The next launch window opened Monday evening but after mission controllers delayed the launch twice because of weather, another technical issue resulted in an aborted launch.
The launch delays are a minor setback on what was otherwise a historic week for Space X, as the company celebrated a successful end to the first mission using a completely recycled spacecraft.
A Dragon capsule, which had previously brought supplies to the International Space Station in 2014, returning to Earth after another mission to the ISS, this time bringing back used cargo and experiment samples which will now be analyzed.
The next launch may happen Wednesday or Thursday as Space X tries to continue a relatively fast frequency of missions, already conducting seven between February and June, with two more already scheduled for August from Cape Canaveral.
(Photo credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)