Article Posted on : - Mar 12, 2010

The full flight-ready Falcon 9 with Dragon spacecraft stands on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. A SpaceX Photo

CAPE CANAVERAL (BNS): American space transportation company SpaceX, which has designed the Falcon 9 heavy-lift launch vehicle, has aborted its test launch due to technical reasons.

The two stage liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propelled launch vehicle was scheduled to be test launched on March 9 but it encountered some problem just before the countdown, SpaceX said.

"We counted down to an T-2 seconds and aborted on Spin Start. Given that this was our first abort event on this pad, we decided to scrub for the day to get a good look at the rocket before trying again," the company said.

No damage to the vehicle was reported, it said.

The next launch trial is expected to take place in three or four days, the company said.

The Falcon 9 rocket launcher has been designed to carry out supply missions to the International Space Station by NASA. It will also be the launch vehicle for the SpaceX-designed Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the ISS.