Royal Caribbean ship under investigation for stopping SpaceX rocket launch

Royal Caribbean International's Harmony of the Seas, the world's largest and newest cruise ship, sails into Southampton, UK.

Harmony of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, sailed too close to the ‘no-go zone’ of a SpaceX rocket launch, causing the launch to be aborted.

An investigation has been opened by the US Coast Guard of the incident as a SpaceX operator called off the mission about 30 seconds before the Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to take off on Sunday evening.

“We can confirm the cruise ship was Harmony of the Seas,” US Coast Guard spokesperson David Micallef told Florida Today in a statement.

“The Coast Guard is actively investigating Sunday’s cruise ship incursion and postponement of the SpaceX launch.”

Port Canaveral CEO, John Murray, told Florida Today that it was an “isolated incident” which happened “outside of our control.”

Murray confirmed to Florida Today that the US Coast Guard was conducting a full investigation.

Royal Caribbean are yet to respond to a request for comments by Travel Weekly.

The Harmony of the Seas cruise liner is 1,188 feet (362.10m) long, 215.5 feet (65.68m) wide, and can host more than 6,600 guests across 18 decks, according to the Royal Caribbean website.

SpaceX’s attempt on Sunday was the fourth consecutive day that the aerospace manufacturer tried to launch the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 mission.

The mission involves sending an observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency into space.

The rocket was finally launched on Monday, making it the fourth launch in one month.

Elon Musk’s firm has the goal of launching 52 missions in 2022, or four rockets each month. This launch put it on track to meet that goal.

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