Updated: SpaceX Rocket Engine Shutdown Affects Satellite
Deployment The Falcon 9 Rocket achieved its main objective on
Sunday night: getting a spacecraft bound for the International
Space Station into orbit. But a problem with one of the engines
meant the rocket's secondary payload, a communications
satellite, is now flying at a lower altitude than planned.
Orbcomm said Monday the rocket wasn't able to complete a second
burn for safety reasons after the engine shutdown, which meant
its prototype second-generation satellite was not deployed at
the right altitude. The New Jersey based company said engineers
from Orbcomm and Sierra Nevada Corp, which built the satellite,
are working to see if it can use its on-board propulsion to lift
it into operational orbit. Orbcomm plans to send 18 of its
satellites into space using Falcon 9 rockets in 2013 and 2014.
SpaceX says it appears one of the Falcon 9 engines lost
pressure, triggering a shutdown one minute and 19 seconds after
lift off on Sunday night. Footage of the