Delta IV Heavy Rocket Launch Scrubbed Again, Postponed Until At Least December 30

The Delta IV Heavy rocket launch may not be happening this year as it has been postponed for the fifth time and delayed until at least the end of December.

The United Launch Alliance announced Thursday that the Delta IV Heavy rocket will not be launching from the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Santa Barbara County, California during its planned schedule. The satellite-carrying rocket was scheduled to launch on Thursday during the window that opened at 5:31 p.m. EST. However, ULA announced just after 10 a.m. that it won't be happening after all.

This is the fifth time that the ULA has postponed the Delta IV Heavy rocket launch. According to KESQ, this has caused frustration among southern California residents who were looking forward to the aerial light show that evening launch's from VAFB's Space Launch Complex-6 will create.

As for when the Delta IV Heavy rocket may launch, mission managers said that while there is no official date and time as of yet, it will not happen until at least Dec. 30.

This news comes after ULA scrubbed the Delta IV Heavy rocket launch attempt on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at 5:49 p.m. EST just 10 minutes before it was set to take off. It had been originally set for 5:44 p.m. that day, but it had been slightly adjusted by ULA at the last minute. The postponement of the launch was linked to a hydrogen leak on the Delta IV Heavy rocket, and it has been speculated that the same problem might have occurred during Thursday's launch attempt.

Prior to this, the rocket launches scheduled for Dec. 7 and 8 had been scrubbed due to technical issues.

For now, ULA has not confirmed the reason for the scrub of the latest rocket launch. "The team is evaluating all the data, and we'll update about a launch date when we can," ULA stated.

The Delta IV Heavy rocket is set to deliver a secretive satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office as part of a mission called NROL-71.

In a statement released prior to the postponement of the launch, ULA vice president of government and commercial programs Gary Wentz said they are working as hard as they can to see the mission become a success.

"We are proud to launch this critical payload in support of our nation's national security mission,'' Wentz said. "As the nation's premiere launch provider, the teams have worked diligently to ensure continued mission success, delivering our customer's payloads to the precise orbits requested.''