James Dean

FLORIDA TODAY

Update, Sunday, Jan. 8:

Bad weather in California has pushed SpaceX's targeted return-to-flight date back five days, to Jan. 14, customer Iridium Communications said in a statement today:

"With high winds and rain in the forecast at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the first launch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites is now planned for January 14th at 9:54:34 am PST with a back-up date of January 15th."

Original story posted Friday, Jan. 6:

SpaceX has been cleared to attempt a Monday launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from California, the company's first in nearly five months.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday confirmed it has accepted the findings of SpaceX's investigation into an explosion that destroyed a rocket and commercial satellite during a Sept. 1 countdown test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and has issued SpaceX a license for the return-to-flight mission.

A Falcon 9 carrying 10 Iridium Communications satellites is targeting liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:22 p.m Eastern Time (10:22 a.m. local time), during an instantaneous window.

But the weather forecast is iffy, with rain expected.

On Thursday, SpaceX fueled the rocket and briefly fired its nine main engines — successfully completing the same type of pre-launch test that was in progress when the September explosion occurred at Launch Complex 40.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, satellite destroyed in explosion

“With completion of the static fire test, our first launch has just gotten that much closer,” said Iridium CEO Matt Desch, in a statement Friday. “The Iridium team has been anxiously awaiting launch day, and we’re now all the more excited to send those first ten Iridium NEXT satellites into orbit.”

The satellites are the first of 70 that SpaceX is contracted to launch for Iridium.

SpaceX on Jan. 2 announced its four-month investigation concluded that the explosion "likely" resulted from buckling in tanks that store gaseous helium, which is used to pressurize propellant tanks. Super-chilled liquid oxygen pooled in the buckles between the lining and a composite carbon overwrap covering the tanks, causing friction or breaking carbon fibers that ignited the oxygen.

The company said it would reconfigure its helium tanks and load the gas at a warmer temperature. Longer-term, the tanks will be redesigned.

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The FAA, NASA, Air Force and National Transportation Safety Board assisted the investigation.

If the next flight goes well, SpaceX hopes to perform its first launch from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A as soon as Jan. 26, launching a commercial communications satellite. Nearby Launch Complex 40 remains out of commission after the September accident.

That could be followed as soon as Feb. 8 with a launch of cargo to the International Space Station. NASA is conducting its own investigation into SpaceX's accident and expects to review findings with the company this month.

Atlas V assembled for launch

The first rocket slated to launch from Cape Canaveral this year is now standing vertical at Launch Complex 41.

United Launch Alliance on Thursday lifted an Atlas V booster into position inside the Vertical Integration Facility. The rocket's Centaur upper stage followed Friday.

The rocket is scheduled to lift of at 7:46 p.m. Jan. 19, at the opening of a 40-minute window, carrying the third in a series of U.S. missile warning satellites. The Space-Based Infrared System satellite called SBIRS GEO-3 is bound for a geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles over the equator.

The mission is ULA's first of at least 11 planned in 2017, including seven from the Cape and four from California.

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Range forecast for 2017

Air Force Col. Walt Jackim, vice commander of the 45th Space Wing, on Tuesday is expected to present a forecast for local launch activity in the year ahead.

Jackim is the featured speaker at the National Space Club Florida Committee's luncheon meeting at the Radisson Resort at the Port in Cape Canaveral. At the meeting, the club will present its Forrest S. McCartney National Defense Space Award for 2017 to the Air Force Capt. Joseph R. Dechert, flight mission lead for the 5th Space Launch Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Visit www.nscfl.org for more information.

Jackim on Wednesday will also be the featured speaker at the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce's first membership business lunch of the year, to be held at Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant.

Spacewalk on Friday

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough on Friday is scheduled to perform his second spacewalk in a week outside the International Space Station, aiming to finish installing six new lithium ion batteries.

This time, Kimbrough will team up with Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, a first-time spacewalker. Kimbrough last Friday completed his fourth spacewalk, a six-hour and 32-minute excursion with NASA veteran Peggy Whitson, that started installing plates and hooking up electrical connections for the batteries.

NASA TV coverage begins at 7:05 a.m. Friday.

In other ISS news, NASA last week announced the assignments of veteran astronaut Drew Feustel and first-time flier Jeanette Epps to station crews flying next year.

Moon Express gets funding

Cape Canaveral-based Moon Express this week plans "a big announcement" about a new round of financing, CEO Bob Richards said.

Richards disclosed the news Thursday during a Webcast promoting the book "How to Make a Spaceship" by Julian Guthrie, about SpaceShipOne's successful 2004 bid to win the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE.

Moon Express is a contender to win the top prize in the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, by landing a privately developed robotic lander on the lunar surface. Moon Express hopes to launch its first spacecraft to the moon before the end of the year from New Zealand, on Rocket Lab's new Electron rocket.

'Mass' visits Visitor Complex

Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino on Tuesday afternoon will visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Tuesday for a presentation and signing of his memoir, “Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe.”

Now a mechanical engineering professor at Columbia University, Massimino flew on two shuttle missions servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, in 2002 and 2009. He's credited with being the first person to tweet from space. Visit www.kennedyspacecenter.com for details.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.