A Falcon 9 rocket stood ready for liftoff Monday night at Vandenberg Space Force Base, but Mother Nature and a NASA spacecraft had different plans, forcing the team to scrub the latest launch attempt.
A next opportunity for launch of the SpaceX rocket will occur as soon as Tuesday night.
The liftoff time will remain 8:10 p.m. at Space Launch Complex-4 on the South Base. Eight minutes later, the first-stage booster is expected to return to Vandenberg, landing just west of the launch site and likely creating sonic booms.
The team had closely watched the weather throughout Monday, when in the morning the forecast called for just a 30% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff. By evening, conditions worsened to 20% as the issue centered on violating the rule for thick clouds.
Last week, Air Force 1st Lt. Ina Park, launch weather officer at Vandenberg, explained the potential trouble the formation of an electric field in the thick clouds can create for a rocket's flight.
"Then we have a rocket that goes up into those clouds and disturbs that electric field and essentially becomes a gigantic lightning rod," Park sad. "We don't want that. That is called rocket-triggered lightning. "
Ahead of each countdown attempt, Vandenberg's launch weather officers assess to determine the likelihood that conditions will be suitable for liftoff and identify the concerns that could endanger multimillion-dollar missions representing years of work to get to liftoff.
In addition to unfavorable weather, mission managers Monday night also noted an issue involving one of the NASA satellites.
They didn't immediately identify the spacecraft or characterize the problem.
Various issues have bedeviled the team trying to get the satellites off the ground since late February.
The team can take heart -- the number of delays still falls below other missions in the past at Vandenberg where postponements reached double digits.
Rainy weather taking aim at the Central Coast for most of this week might add to the team's torment.
Awaiting their rides into space are a pair of five satellites for NASA missions on astrophysics and heliophysics.
The two NASA missions include SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) plus PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere).
SPHEREx, a space telescope, will map the universe, looking for water, carbon dioxide and other essential ingredients for life.
PUNCH boasts four small satellites with the constellation focused on delivering details about solar wind, which affects communication systems and power grids.
The SPHEREx and PUNCH live launch broadcast will stream live, starting at 7:15 p.m., at NASA+ and NASA's YouTube channel.