SpaceX delays satellite launch, rocket return-landing attempt

U.S. space firm SpaceX has scrubbed Wednesday evening's planned launch of a European satellite as well as an attempt to land the then spent first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

"Team opting to hold launch for today. Looking to try again tomorrow," the California-based firm said on Twitter, adding that the "rocket and spacecraft remain healthy", and the launch was rescheduled for 6:46 pm ET (2346 GMT) on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, SpaceX tweeted that the weather was 60 percent favorable for Wednesday's launch attempt, with thick clouds and strong winds over the launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The rocket's main mission is to launch a commercial communications satellite called SES-9, which will deliver television and high-speed broadband services to the Asia-Pacific region, to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit for the Luxembourg-based satellite operator, SES.

The company will also try to land the then spent first stage of the rocket on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, as an effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets.

Given the high Earth orbit of the SES-9, about 36,000 kilometers above our planet, the company made it clear in a statement that "a successful landing is not expected".

SpaceX achieved one successful soft landing last December on a land-based pad at Cape Canaveral after three previous attempts to land the first stage on an ocean droneship -- respectively in January 2015, April 2015, and last month -- failed. Endi