The private spaceflight company had intended to try landing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an "autonomous spaceport drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean during today's liftoff of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which is scheduled to take place at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can watch the SpaceX launch live online, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT).

But rough seas have scuttled that plan.

"The drone ship was designed to operate in all but the most extreme weather. We are experiencing just such weather in the Atlantic, with waves reaching up to three stories in height crashing over the decks," SpaceX representatives wrote in an update today.