Technical issues scrub SpaceX launch from Cape

Update, 6:20 p.m. ET:

This evening's SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station has been scrubbed due to technical issues. More on that here.

Update: 4:02 p.m.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is being fueled in preparation for launch today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 40 at 6:10 p.m., two minutes after sunset.

The weather forecast remains excellent, with only a 10 percent chance that cloud could pose a problem for the instantaneous launch window.

No technical or weather issues are being reported at this time.

Former Vice President Al Gore is attending the launch of the spacecraft he first proposed in 1998.

Earlier story:

A space weather satellite and SpaceX rocket are ready for what promises to be a "spectacular" sunset launch tonight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, officials reported today.

Liftoff is targeted for 6:10 p.m., and the forecast is excellent, with less than a 10 percent chance of weather violating launch rules when the instantaneous window arrives.

"I think we should be in a very, very low threat of violation for a spectacular sunset launch," said Mike McAleenan, the launch weather officer from the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron, during a news conference at Kennedy Space Center.

Flying atop a Falcon 9 rocket is the $340 million Deep Space Climate Observatory mission, or DSCOVR, a spacecraft first proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore, who is expected to be here for the launch.

"This has been a long time coming," said Stephen Volz, assistant administrator of the NOAA Satellite and Information Service in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is now the lead agency for the mission formerly named Triana, with a pair of Earth-observing NASA instruments serving as a secondary mission supporting climate research.

One of those instruments, called EPIC, is a camera that will produce images of the full, sunlit Earth from one million miles away that were Gore's original inspiration for the mission. He thought the continuous picture of the Earth available on the Internet would help raise environmental awareness.

The Triana mission ran into political opposition that bumped it from a planned 2000 launch on the space shuttle Columbia, then forced it into storage in a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

NOAA determined it would meet the agency's needs for space weather forecasting, replacing the NASA research satellite known as ACE that has operated for 17 years, far longer than planned.

The agency provides alerts to operators of satellites, aircraft, telecommunications networks and power grids that could help them take steps to protect systems from the effects of solar storms.

In addition to the great launch forecast, officials said no rocket or spacecraft issues were being worked.

After the launch, SpaceX will make its second attempt to land the Falcon 9's first-stage booster on a platform roughly 370 miles down range. A first attempt at the experimental landing last month hit the platform, but too hard, after steering fins ran out of hydraulic fluid too soon.

Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance at Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, put the odds of success again at 50-50.

Because the satellite launch requires more fuel, the booster will return with a more aggressive trajectory and perform only two braking engine burns instead of three.

Join us here for live countdown updates, including streaming of NASA TV', starting at 5 p.m. today.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean.