Will Review Potential Failure Modes And Contingency Plans

SpaceX has decided to postpone the flight of AsiaSat 6 that had been scheduled for Wednesday.

"We are not aware of any issue with Falcon 9, nor the interfaces with the Spacecraft, but have decided to review all potential failure modes and contingencies again," SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in a statement posted on the company website. "We expect to complete this process in one to two weeks.

"The natural question is whether this is related to the test vehicle malfunction at our development facility in Texas last week. After a thorough review, we are confident that there is no direct link. Had the same blocked sensor port problem occurred with an operational Falcon 9, it would have been outvoted by several other sensors. That voting system was not present on the test vehicle.

"What we do want to triple-check is whether even highly improbable corner case scenarios have the optimal fault detection and recovery logic. This has already been reviewed by SpaceX and multiple outside agencies, so the most likely outcome is no change. If any changes are made, we will provide as much detail as is allowed under US law."

(Image from file)

FMI: www.spacex.com