SpaceX launch update, news: weather concerns push back Falcon 9 launch to Jan. 14

Georgia Gana Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The recovered first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is transported to the SpaceX hangar at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 14, 2016. | Reuters/Joe Skipper

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, has announced that its rocket launch, which was supposed to blast off last Monday, Jan. 9, has been delayed by five days due to weather concerns.

"Launch moving due to high winds and rains at Vandenberg. Other range conflicts this week results in next available launch date being Jan. 14," the aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company announced on Twitter.

The rocket launch was initially scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 8, but had to be pushed back a day later as CEO Elon Musk announced that they had yet to receive the necessary license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The arrival of the FAA license meant that the rocket launch scheduled to take off from the Space Launch Complex 43 of the Vandenberg Air Force base in California was all set had it not been for inclement weather.

SpaceX is now expected to resume the rocket launch on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 9:54 a.m. PST or 12:54 p.m. EST. The Falcon 9 is to be used to send 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into orbit for Iridium Communications.

All eyes are on SpaceX as it resumes operations and launches its first rocket following the Falcon 9 explosion that took place in September 2016. Earlier this month, the company revealed that it has determined the cause of the explosion.

"The accident investigation team worked systematically through an extensive fault tree analysis and concluded that one of the three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) inside the second stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank failed," SpaceX said in a statement.

The company further explained that the failure was likely to have been caused by the accumulation of oxygen between the composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) liner and overwrap in a buckle in the liner which led to the ignition and failure of the COPV. SpaceX announced that both short-term and long-term design changes will be made to ensure the success of future launches.