SpaceX: Elon Musk halts launch of NASA satellite that will look for planets capable of supporting life

An artist's illustration shows NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) that is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
AFP/Getty Images

SpaceX has delayed the launch of a satellite that will look for planets beyond our solar system capable of supporting life.

Elon Musk’s private space firm said it needs more time to analyse the control systems for the rocket that will shoot the NASA satellite into space.

SpaceX halted the countdown a little more than two hours before its Falcon 9 rocket had been scheduled to carry the Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, into orbit from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Space Exploration Technologies, as billionaire entrepreneur Mr Musk's private launch service is formally known, said on Twitter that the blast-off was scrapped due to unspecified problems in the rocket's guidance control system.

The launch was rescheduled for 6:51 pm EDT (10.51pm GMT) on Wednesday.

The two-year, multi-million-dollar TESS mission is designed to build on the work of its predecessor, the Kepler space telescope, which has discovered the bulk of some 3,700 exoplanets documented during the past 20 years and is running out of fuel.

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