SpaceX rocket launch scrubbed at last minute

Billionaire Elon Musk suffered another setback Thursday when SpaceX, the company he founded, said it had scrubbed a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch attempt from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch was halted after a last-minute automatic abort, the company said in a Twitter posting. The rocket and the payload are in good condition, and there is another opportunity to launch the rocket at 4:14 p.m. ET Friday, according to the company.

Reuters reported that the Block 5 is the first rocket from Musk’s California-based company to satisfy NASA’s standards for carrying agency astronauts to the International Space Station. Seven successful flights are required before the new rocket receives final certification for a manned mission.

If SpaceX is successful Friday, the rocket will launch the Bangladeshi government’s first satellite, Bangabandhu-1, into orbit.