SpaceX launches observatory on third try, nixes landing test

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX launched an observatory Wednesday inspired by former Vice President Al Gore toward a solar-storm lookout point a million miles away.

The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on the third try in four days, successfully hoisting the spacecraft for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Air Force.

Gore – who dreamed up the idea for an environmentally conscious, Earth-gazing satellite 17 years ago – returned for the sunset launch. Besides watching for solar outbursts, the observatory will provide pictures of the full, sunlit side of Earth.

Unlike Tuesday, the wind stayed within limits and everything went SpaceX’s way – at least for launch. But rough seas forced the company to cancel its effort to land the leftover booster on an ocean platform.

With three hours remaining in the countdown, SpaceX called off the radical landing test of the first-stage booster. It would have been the second such experiment; last month’s ended in flames when it slammed into the platform and exploded.

“Mega storm preventing droneship from remaining on station, so rocket will try to land on water,” SpaceX chief Elon Musk reported via Twitter shortly before liftoff.

Musk later said the rocket landed in the ocean within 10 miles of the target and was “nicely vertical.”