SpaceX counts down to first rocket launch since blast
SpaceX on Sunday counted down to its first rocket launch since an explosion after liftoff destroyed its unmanned Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station six months ago.
The Falcon 9 rocket is poised to launch at 8:29 pm (0129 GMT Monday) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, announced the Californiabased company headed by internet tycoon Elon Musk.
After launch, SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket in an upright position on solid ground for the first time, a milestone it sees as key for making rockets as reusable as commercial airplanes one day. “If successful, this test would mark the first time in history an orbital rocket has successfully achieved a land landing,” SpaceX said in a statement.
Several previous attempts at landing the rocket on a floating ocean platform have failed, but SpaceX says each try has taught them more about how to succeed in the future. SpaceX will aim to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 — which is the long, towering portion of the rocket — at a former US Air Force rocket and missile testing range that was last used in 1978. The range is known as Landing Zone 1, and was formerly called Space Launch Complex 13.
While the landing is important to SpaceX’s plans, the primary goal of the mission is to deliver 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit for ORBCOMM, a global communications company.
Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — who also owns the rocket company Blue Origin — announced he had successfully landed his New Shepard rocket after a suborbital flight.
New Shepard flew to a lower altitude than the Falcon 9, making the landing an easier feat for Bezos’s rocket than it would be for Musk’s, analysts say.