A massive fleet of tiny satellites is stuck on Earth for a few more days after SpaceX called off an attempt to launch them into orbit on Wednesday (Nov. 26).<\/p>\n
SpaceX<\/a> scrubbed the planned launch of 140 satellites, all aboard the same Falcon 9 rocket<\/a>, just over 15 minutes before their planned liftoff from a seaside pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base<\/a> in California. The company did not disclose a reason for the delay. The next opportunity to launch the mission, called Transporter-15, will be Friday (Nov. 28), at 1:19 p.m. EST (1819 GMT).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “There are a thousand ways that a launch can go wrong and only one way that it can go right,” a SpaceX spokesperson said during live launch commentary<\/a>. “So, given that, we are overly cautious on the ground, and if the team or the vehicle sees anything that looks even slightly off, we’ll stop the countdown.”<\/p>\n Best picks for you<\/p>\n Transporter-15 is a SpaceX rideshare mission<\/a> designed to carry dozens of small satellites into orbit for a variety of customers. SpaceX initially hoped to launch the mission on Nov. 19, but has seen repeated delays for the flight.<\/p>\n The satellites riding aboard the Falcon 9 are an ecclectic mix of commercial satellites, Earth-observation spacecraft and other vehicles. The Earth imaging company Planet Labs, for example, has 36 small “SuperDove” satellites riding alongside two of its larger Pelican Earth-observation satellites. The European Space Agency<\/a>, meanwhile, has a pair of HydryoGNSS satellites on board to monitor Earth’s water cycle.<\/p>\n Previous Booster 1071 missions<\/p>\n Two launch providers, ExoLaunch and SEOPS, each have a collection of different spacecraft aboard Transporter-15 for various clients. Varda<\/a>, a company that launches experiments that can return to Earth on reentry capsules, will fly its fifth spacecraft, called W-5, on the mission. And there are dozens of other satellites representing companies from around the world, including Taiwan and Italy.<\/p>\n The Falcon 9 rocket on Transporter-15 includes a first stage that has flown 29 times before. If all goes well, the first stage will return to Earth after liftoff to land on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean so it can be returned to shore for eventual reuse.<\/p>\n