SpaceX founder Elon Musk After the Space X flight on Tuesday was cancelled due to the range of another aircraft in the launch area, the company called for system reforms.
“Unfortunately, today’s launch was cancelled because a plane entered the’forbidden zone’, which is unreasonably large,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon. “Without major regulatory reforms, mankind will never become a space civilization. The current regulatory system has been broken.”
SpaceX is preparing to launch the Transporter 2 mission from the Cape Canaveral Space Station before 3 pm Eastern Time. This will mark the second dedicated carpool mission organized by the company after launching the first batch of 10 Starlink satellites in January 2021.
However, 11 seconds before takeoff, the launch was scrubbed due to “foul range”. The next release opportunity is at 2:56 pm EST on Wednesday.
“Because Range was unable to play and was suspended; the team is preparing for tomorrow’s substitute opportunity,” Space Exploration Technology Corporation Published on Twitter.
Joan Cross/Corbis News
The mission is to transport a total of 88 small satellites from various customers of private companies and government agencies. The Space Development Agency of the Department of Defense will launch five satellites in the Transporter 2 mission at a cost of approximately US$21 million.
The carpool plan was developed to increase the number of commercial releases. SpaceX advertises its entry into sun-synchronous orbit at a price of US$1 million per 200 kg.
However, the plan also put pressure on companies that develop small rockets to put satellites into orbit. These rockets are more expensive and lack SpaceX’s record of 100 successful launches.
Tuesday’s “foul range” is rare for most liftoffs. Since the US East Coast military department has taken over jurisdiction and communication in the strict “forbidden zone” has improved, violations of the scope can usually be avoided.
According to the SpaceX webcast host, an aircraft may have strayed into temporarily restricted airspace. When a vehicle or a certain type of pedestrian fails to heed the warning and enters the launch “range” during a real-time launch attempt, the “foul range” is usually declared.
In addition to the Transporter 2 mission, SpaceX is already working on launching the third to sixth missions in December 2021, March 2022, June 2022, and October 2022. The other three dedicated carpool launches are tentatively scheduled for 2023.
Before delaying the launch, Musk said that the company’s satellite Internet network recently surpassed 70,000 active users, and it is expected that there will be more in the coming year.
“We are on the road to have hundreds of thousands of users, and may exceed 500,000 users in 12 months,” Musk said on Mobile World Congress Barcelona trade show.
