spacetoday.net: SpaceX identifies cause of launch abort

Posted: Sun, Nov 1, 2020, 12:42 PM ET (1742 GMT)
Falcon 9 launch of GPS 3 SV03 (USAF)

SpaceX says it's tracked down the cause of an aborted Falcon 9 launch early this month. The Oct. 2 launch of a GPS 3 satellite was stopped at the last second because of a problem with a gas generator in one of the rocket's Merlin engines. At a briefing Wednesday, SpaceX said a relief valve in the rocket was blocked by "masking lacquer", similar to nail polish, that was not properly cleaned out during the manufacturing process. SpaceX is replacing two Merlin engines in the Falcon 9 booster that will launch NASA's Crew-1 commercial crew mission because they showed similar behavior in testing to the engine from the GPS launch attempt. NASA has rescheduled the Crew-1 launch for the evening of Nov. 14.