SpaceX's Thankgiving Launch Didn't Go Well

After some technical difficulties delayed its initial plans on Monday, Elon Musk's SpaceX program wanted to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday evening, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, marking the first Thanksgiving space launch since 1956. It didn't go as planned.

Wired has a good recap of the problems suffered Monday's launch. Once Musk and co. realized Monday was no longer an option, they agreed with the FAA's suggestion to push the launch to Thursday to avoid complicating Thanksgiving travel plans further. The skies were already plenty full without a spaceship launch.

This is the first time SpaceX will attempt to launch a geostationary satellite. The Verge explains why this is hugely important for SpaceX: 

Should today's launch go smoothly, it'll mark a significant milestone both for SpaceX and for the commercial space transportation industry more broadly. The company's Falcon 9 will blast the SES-8 communications satellite — owned by Luxembourg-based SES World Skies — into geostationary orbit. It's the first time SpaceX has launched a commercial communications satellite, and will set the stage for the company to perform subsequent launches that currently take place overseas.

Update, 5:42 p.m. ET   Except things didn't go smoothly at all. The spaceship started the ignition process and was two seconds away from liftoff. But the ground computers realized something was amiss and the project was delayed, and possibly aborted, at the last minute.

There's still a chance the takeoff happens today. All is not lost. 

Musk discloses the problem: 

Launch aborted by autosequence due to slower than expected thrust ramp. Seems ok on closer inspection. Cycling countdown.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2013

The launch could still happen later Thursday night.