Private US company SpaceX was Tuesday poised for a third attempt to launch its first commercial satellite, after repairs were made to the Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n
The launch window opens at 5:37 pm (2237 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX said.<\/p>\n
The rocket’s cargo is a telecommunications satellite for the Luxembourg company SES, which until now has used European Ariane rockets or the Russian Proton for its satellite launches.<\/p>\n
“SES-8 will be SpaceX’s first launch to a geostationary transfer orbit — 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles) from Earth — and most challenging mission to date,” the company said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
The SES satellite is due to provide television, cable TV and other services to countries including China, India and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
SpaceX, owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, is eager to get into the commercial satellite launch business, estimated to be worth $190 billion a year.<\/p>\n
The launch is the first using an improved version of the Falcon 9 after a test flight in California.<\/p>\n
A delay on Thursday was blamed on unexpected technical problems with the rocket’s fuel system. Its first attempt at launch was also put off on Monday of last week.<\/p>\n
“All known rocket anomalies have been resolved,” SpaceX said late Monday.<\/p>\n
The Falcon 9 has already succeeded in sending its Dragon capsules to the International Space Station under a contract with the US space agency, NASA.<\/p>\n
The Dragon capsule takes cargo into space and brings back material from scientific experiments.<\/p>\n
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