SpaceX has postponed Falcon 9 rocket’s fourth launch attempt on Tuesday and the rocket is still present there on a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

On Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said upper-level winds are the culprit for delay. He announced that Friday is the next available opportunity for launching the SES-9 communications satellite from Launch Complex 40.

While describing what a rocket would face in such conditions, Musk said that it ‘hits like a sledgehammer when going up supersonic’. No talks were held about an exact launch window for the fifth attempt.

In a release, Phillip Larson, a SpaceX spokesperson, said that upper-level winds will probably surpass suitable limits by Thursday.

He added, “Our team will continue working with the Air Force’s Launch Weather Officer to evaluate the best available opportunity for flight in the coming days”.

According to the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron, the conditions are 80% positive for attempting a launch. Friday’s forecast hasn’t been released so far.

The most recent delay announcement has come after issues faced by SpaceX on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday of previous week because of a series of fuel and range problems.

The launch that was to take place on Sunday was scrapped partially because of a boat roving into the safety zone underneath the planned flight path of the rocket, pressurizing it to stay on the pad for extra 35 minutes. As per Musk, a low thrust alarm forced computers to close down the rocket’s nine Merlin 1D engines automatically nearly a second before it would have lifted off.

Attempts to launch the 11,600-pound satellite, the heaviest ever boosted by a Falcon 9, were cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday because of problems related to keeping the liquid oxygen propellant of the rocket chilled to its freezing point. In the upgraded Falcon 9, the super-cooled, denser form of the propellant makes greater launch performance possible.