Video: Falcon 9 fires up engines for static fire test (members only)

SpaceX called off the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket Friday at Cape Canaveral, halting the countdown less than a minute before liftoff to allow time to perform additional ground system checkouts before the mission’s next launch opportunity no earlier than Sunday.

Two companies — U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and British start-up Orbex — seeking to carve out a share of the burgeoning small satellite launch market plan to fly their rockets from a remote site on the northern shore of Scotland, British government and industry officials announced Monday.

On the eve of the launch of his country’s first communications satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket, the chief executive of BulgariaSat credited SpaceX’s cost-cutting ways with making space accessible for small nations and money-conscious companies like his own.