SpaceX scrubs Wednesday launch attempt due to high upper-level winds

Enlarge / SpaceX has a sooty booster on the pad in California, ready for a launch Wednesday morning. (credit: SpaceX)

Wednesday morning update: Due to unfavorable upper-level winds before the opening of an instantaneous launch window, SpaceX had to scrub the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday morning. The company's next attempt will come at 9:17am ET on Thursday.

Original post: After the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket two weeks ago, going back to launching a single core of a Falcon 9 rocket may seem like something of a letdown. But the next SpaceX launch, presently scheduled for early Wednesday morning, is worth tuning into.

The instantaneous launch window opens (and closes) at 9:17am ET Wednesday, and weather conditions forecast for the launchpad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, are 90-percent favorable. (Update: About an hour before the launch window, upper-level winds are too high, so SpaceX will gather additional data from a weather at T-25 minutes, and make a final launch decision from there. It has proceeded with propellant loading, however.)

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