SpaceX halts countdown of first commercial launch of updated Falcon 9 rocket in Florida

[May 11, 2018]    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX on Thursday aborted the launch of its planned first commercial flight of an updated Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a mission to carry a satellite into orbit for the government of Bangladesh.

The countdown was halted less than a minute before blastoff, in the final stage of the launch sequence, due to an unspecified glitch. It was not immediately clear whether SpaceX would be able to resume the countdown and proceed with the maiden flight of its Block-5 Falcon 9 rocket or postpone the launch to another day.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette at Cape Canaveral; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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