Watch live: SpaceX is planning another attempt to launch a US spy satellite

ORLANDO, FL, Dec.19 (UPI) – SpaceX It plans another attempt to launch the company’s second space espionage mission for the US government on Saturday morning.

The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch during a three-hour launch window beginning at 9 a.m. EST from Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The US Space Force predicts that there is only a 10% chance that clouds could cause a delay or a delay.

SpaceX aborted an earlier launch attempt Thursday due to a slightly elevated pressure reading in a liquid oxygen tank in the upper stage on the missile. The countdown stops at 1 minute, 53 seconds before launch.

Andy Tran, SpaceX’s avionics production supervisor, said during a live broadcast Thursday that the missile and payload were in good condition despite the miscarriage.

As part of the launch, Elon MuskThe company intends to land the first stage of the boosted missile on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, about 10 miles south of the launch site.

The company said the landing could generate a sonic boom heard in Central Florida.

The company’s first launch of a US spy satellite, NROL-76, was in May 2017 for the National Reconnaissance Office, which is part of the Department of Defense. Most of these missions have been carried out in recent years by the United Launch Alliance.

The government says very little about classified missions like Sunday’s launch, except that the missile carries a “national security payload designed, built, and operated by the agency … to provide intelligence data to top US policymakers and intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense.”

The mission of the National Reconnaissance Office is to provide information for intelligence, research and development requirements and assistance in emergency and disaster relief.