SpaceX Hits Second Glitch in Satellite Launch, Pushes Takeoff to Monday

SpaceX's second attempt in a week to launch an SES satellite aboard its unmanned Falcon 9 rocket failed Thursday due to a technical glitch, both companies reported.

According to SES, which operates a fleet of 54 geostationary satellites, Monday's takeoff was delayed when SpaceX officials detected "unexpected readings" in its rocket's liquid oxygen system.

Thursday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted saying they had called a manual abort. "Better to be paranoid and wrong," he said.

The PayPal co-founder and Telsa Motors CEO offered more details via Twitter two days later, saying they had identified the problem and were planning on a launch sometime Monday evening.

According to Reuters, the SES satellite is worth roughly $100 million, and will be positioned in order to provide television, cable, broadband and other services to customers in Asia, including India and China.

"It's an extremely important satellite for us," the news outlet quoted Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of SES, as saying at a prelaunch gathering Sunday. "We know that as we go forward into these very significant growth markets that it's absolutely critical that we have a cost-effective and efficient way to get to orbit. That's really what SpaceX has brought us."

While Halliwell was unwilling to disclose just how much SpaceX was charging for a ride on their rocket, he said the price tag fell below previous satellite launches aboard Russian Proton and European Ariane rockets. SpaceX also offered the company a discount for agreeing to be a part of the Falcon 9's first mission to the high altitudes needed for the delivery of communication satellites.

The Falcon 9 rocket first made history in 2012 when it delivered the cargo capsule Dragon into rendezvous with the International Space Station. In the last two years, the company has delivered cargo to the station for NASA three times, and is currently working toward one day ferrying cosmonauts to and from the orbiting lab.