Launch of the Falcon 9 rocket has been delayed until Sunday following a series of technical problems.

It will be the first time the rocket has flown in the past six months following an explosion in June when carrying supplies to the ISS.

SpaceX was planning to launch its rocket on Saturday, but tweets from CEO Elon Musk last night revealed a number of engineering challenges.

Scroll down for video

Launch of the Falcon 9 rocket has been delayed until Sunday following a series of technical problems. It will be the first time the rocket has flown in the past six months following an explosion in June when carrying supplies to the ISS

On Wednesday, the Falcon 9 was taken out of its hanger and was brought vertical at the SLC-40 launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

The static fire was due to then take place last night instead, but scientists encountered some problems, according to Extreme Tech.

'Working towards static fire,' Musk said on Twitter. 'Deep cryo liquid oxygen presenting some challenges.'

Replying to a tweet about the temperature being '-298 degrees F', which is the loading point for liquid oxygen in rocket tanks, Musk said '-340 F in this case.'

'Working towards static fire,' Musk said on Twitter. 'Deep cryo liquid oxygen presenting some challenges.' Replying to a tweet about the temperature being '-298 degrees F', which is the loading point for liquid oxygen in rocket tanks, Musk said '-340 F in this case'

The Falcon 9 will launch once again on December 19th, after a lengthy break from spaceflight. It will be the first time the SpaceX rocket has flown in the past six months, following an explosion in June when carrying supplies to the ISS. Pictured is the Falon rocket during launch. Now it wants to land a rocket at a site in Florida

WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE LAST LAUNCH OF THE FALCON 9? The Falcon 9 rocket broke up just minutes after its launch with a robotic Drago cargo capsule for the ISS in June. SpaceX said the initial part of the liftoff went well, until the vehicle went supersonic. Elon Musk posted an update soon after saying: 'Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before the first stage shutdown. 'There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank.' In a post-incident press briefing, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told members of the media, 'We do not expect this to be a first stage issue. 'We saw some pressurisation indications in the second stage which we will be investigating.' Advertisement

'Deep cryo increases density and amplifies rocket performance. First time anyone has gone this low for O2.'

SpaceX has not yet responded to DailyMail.com for comment.

When it launches, the rocket will take 11 satellites for the New Jersey-based telecommunications group Orbcomm into low Earth orbit.

SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, said it will also attempt its first ever landing back on Earth after a series of barge landings proved unsuccessful.

The privately-held company has flown 18 successful missions with the Falcon 9 before its failure during the summer.

Just minutes after its liftoff in June, the rocket broke up with a robotic Drago cargo capsule for the ISS.

SpaceX said the initial part of the liftoff went well, until the vehicle went supersonic at which point it exploded.

Musk posted an update soon after the explosion saying: 'Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before the first stage shutdown.

'There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank.'

After the incident, Musk said that all rockets int he future will have their struts individually tested before flight.

The upcoming launch will test out a new version of the Falcon 9 that will make it easier for the company to recover the rocket after take-off.

Last week, Elon Musk and his team revealed they will be making a ground landing on this attempt.

Earlier this year, the billionaire signed a lease at a landing site at Cape Canaveral, and already painted an X to mark the spot of the landing.

Nasa confirmed that Space X is using Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A for launches of Falcon Heavy rockets.

'Their plan is to try to land (the next booster) out here on the Cape-side,' said Carol Scott of Nasa's Commercial Crew Program, shortly after she discussed the plan with a SpaceX executive.

Three previous attempts by the company to land a rocket on a barge in the ocean were 'almost successful'.

The water-based landings were always meant as practice for boosts returning to land, where they can be more easily recovered.

SPACEX' FAILED ATTEMPTS TO LAND A ROCKET ON A BARGE Before Jeff Bezos' successful attempt, Elon Musk dominated the headlines for his SpaceX test flights – but not always for the right reasons. Earlier this year, Musk released dramatic footage of the Californian company's third attempt to land a rocket booster on a barge in the Atlantic. The video, taken from a plane, shows the Falcon 9 booster lowering itself onto the platform, before a gust of wind sways it to one side. The 14-storey booster manages to hit the barge, but its high speed and tilt causes it to explode on impact. Landing the rocket upright was always going to be tricky. SpaceX once compared it to balancing a broomstick on your hand. The water-based landings were always meant as practice for boosts returning to land, where they can be more easily recovered. Advertisement

The company wants to land the first stages of Falcon 9 rockets so that they can be flown again, dramatically saving on launch costs.

And it isn't the only one. Last month, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos's successfully landed a rocket at a launch site in Texas.

Bezos proudly tweeted: 'The rarest of beasts - a used rocket. Controlled landing not easy, but done right, can look easy.'

But Musk immediately hit back at the achievement, with: 'Not quite 'rarest'. SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did 6 suborbital flights three years ago and is still around.'

The Grasshopper made eight flights and landings before it was retired in late 2013, but the highest it ever flew was around half a mile.

In comparison, Bezos' New Shepard rocket blasted off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site at 12:21pm CST (18.21 GMT) yesterday.

It reached a suborbital altitude of 62 miles (100 km) – much farther than the Grasshopper - and landed back at the launch site eight minutes later.

In suborbital spaceflight, rockets are not traveling fast enough to reach the speed required to counter the pull of Earth's gravity.

This means they re-enter the atmosphere like a ballistic missile, but he only visible damage to the rocket is scorched metal at its base.

Being able to re-fly a rocket will slash launch costs, a game-changer for the space industry.

Last week, a war of words erupted on Twitter between billionaire Jeff Bezos (right) and Elon Musk (left). Both entrepreneurs are hoping to be the first to commercialise space travel by developing reusable rockets

Musk immediately hit back at the achievement, with: 'Not quite 'rarest'. SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did 6 suborbital flights three years ago and is still around.' The Grasshopper made eight flights and landings before it was retired in late 2013, but the highest it ever flew was around half a mile

'When you lower the cost of access to space very significantly you will change the markets, you will change what's possible,' Bezos said.

Regardless of its distance, Musk didn't think that the 'suborbital' achievement was that much to shout about.

'Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital VTOL flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next', he wrote.

He wanted to set the record straight on what is considered to be 'space.' Suborbital flights, he said, are completely different to 'orbital' flights which are required to send humans to Mars.

'Getting to space needs ~Mach 3, but GTO orbit requires ~Mach 30. The energy needed is the square, i.e. 9 units for space and 900 for orbit,' Musk tweeted.

This means the Amazon founder's rocket would need 100 times more power to become orbital.

In a later conference call with the media, Bezos defended the Blue Origin achievement, highlighting that SpaceX is also making a suborbital flight.

A Blue Origin spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'SpaceX is only trying to recover their first stage booster, which is of course suborbital. The SpaceX first stage does an in-space deceleration burn to make their re-entry more benign.

'If anything, the Blue Origin booster may be the one that flies through the harsher re-entry environment. Finally, the hardest part is probably the final landing segment which is the same for both boosters.'

Until now, Musk has dominated the headlines for his SpaceX test flights – but not always for the right reasons.

The disaster in June was the first of its kind for privately owned Space Exploration Technologies. Before the failure, SpaceX had clocked nearly 50 launches, worth more than $7 billion

Nasa has confirmed that Space X is using Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A for launches of Falcon Heavy rockets in Cape Canaveral, Florida

SpaceX may scrap its ambitious attempts to land a rocket on a barge (pictured). Elon Musk and his team hope to make a ground landing on their next attempt to return a booster from space, which will take place next week

SpaceX wants to land the first stages of Falcon 9 rockets (pictured) so that they can be flown again, dramatically saving on launch costs

Earlier this year, Musk released dramatic footage of the Californian company's third attempt to land a rocket booster on a barge in the Atlantic.

The video, taken from a plane, shows the Falcon 9 booster lowering itself onto the platform, before a gust of wind sways it to one side.

The 14-storey booster manages to hit the barge, but its high speed and tilt causes it to explode on impact.

Landing the rocket upright was always going to be tricky. SpaceX once compared it to balancing a broomstick on your hand.

The Verge points out that the Falcon 9 and New Shephard are completely different vehicles and shouldn't be compared to each other.

The Falcon rocket is designed to launch satellites and cargo into orbit, which is why its so thin and tall.

The shapes creates less drag, allowing it to go deeper into space. But it also makes it much harder to land back on Earth.

Touchdown! The landed rocket is shown. The only visible damage to the rocket is scorched metal at its base

Earlier this year, Musk released dramatic footage of the Californian company's third attempt to land a rocket booster on a barge in the Atlantic