SpaceX launch aborted at last second

Cape Canaveral, Florida: A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground yesterday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight.

The engine ignition sequence for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket started up at the three-second mark yesterday morning, but the onboard computers automatically shut down. So instead of blasting off on a delivery mission to the space station, the rocket stayed on its launch pad amid a plume of engine exhaust.

Even Nasa's most seasoned launch commentator was taken off guard. "Three, two, one, zero and liftoff," announced commentator George Diller, his voice trailing as the rocket failed to budge. "We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur."

Billionaire rocket designer Elon Musk attributed the problem to slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine No. 5.

Tuesday is the earliest that SpaceX can try again to send its cargo-laden Dragon capsule to the space station. The California-based company — formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp — is targeting every third day for a launch attempt to save fuel in case of rendezvous problems at the space station.

This was the first launch attempt by the several private US companies hoping to take over the job of delivering cargo and eventually astronauts to the space station for Nasa.