James Dean

FLORIDA TODAY

SpaceX now hopes to launch a group of commercial satellites late this month, after problems during a Friday attempt to test-fire Falcon 9 rocket engines postponed a planned launch this weekend.

Already delayed a day, the "static fire" test was scrubbed during fueling. SpaceX did not detail what went wrong and said the rocket was in good condition.

The Falcon 9 had been scheduled to blast off at 9:47 a.m. today carrying six Orbcomm satellites, with Sunday serving as a backup launch date.

Instead, the mission will slip behind two that United Launch Alliance has coming up.

ULA plans to launch the Air Force's next Global Positioning System satellite Thursday evening on a Delta IV rocket, and one week later a National Reconnaissance Office satellite atop an Atlas V rocket.

Before the rocket issues arose, Orbcomm executives on Thursday told investors that if their mission did not fly this weekend, they expected May 26 to be the next launch opportunity.

A brief SpaceX statement on Friday said the next opportunity is "most likely in late May" and cited the Cape's busy launch schedule.

The mission is the first of two SpaceX planned to launch this year to deploy Orbcomm's new constellation of 17 satellites, called Orbcomm Generation 2, or OG2.

Headquartered in New Jersey, Orbcomm specializes in machine-to-machine communications that track the location and condition of heavy equipment, ships, trailers and cargo containers around the world.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com.