BBC Focus Magazine

[Shadowwolf]

SpaceX aborted the historic launch of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on Saturday at the last second because of a rocket engine glitch.

The launch would the first attempt to send a private spacecraft to the space station. SpaceX and NASA officials say the next launch attempts could come Tuesday or Wednesday in the early morning hours at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

As the countdown reached zero, the engines began firing -- but then shut down, NASA and SpaceX officials said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/19/tech/us-spacex/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

[MikeG]

The fact that the system shut down as it did means that everything is working as it should. Its possible that one of the engines may need to be changed (SpaceX has spares).

[Shadowwolf]

True and even though rocket tech is a long way from where it began it's probably worth recalling that many countries development involved more than the odd launch pad firework rather than a shutdown.