Watch SpaceX rocket launch on Thursday

Image via Spacex.

Tomorrow SpaceX will attempt a milestone rocket launch; that is, it’ll attempt to launch a previously used, or “flight proven,” rocket into orbital space for the first time. The Falcon 9 rocket is currently scheduled to launch tomorrow (Thursday, March 30, 2017) at 6:27 p.m. EDT (22:27 UTC). Translate to your timezone.

You can watch it live here. The page will be kept up-to-date with a countdown and automatically turn on the live video when it becomes available.

This same rocket was used last April to send a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS). It landed on April 8 in the Atlantic Ocean on a SpaceX drone ship named Of Course I Still Love You. This time, the spacecraft will carry an SES-10 satellite for coverage over Latin America.

How big a deal is this? It’s a very big deal, says The Planetary Society’s Jason Davis:

SpaceX’s entire philosophy revolves around the concept of reusability. Company CEO Elon Musk has been dreaming about reusable rockets since the company’s inception 15 years ago, when there was only a Falcon LV—which later became the Falcon 1 Musk proudly displayed on the Washington, D.C. National Mall in 2003. The company’s website says reusability is “the key to making human life multi-planetary” because it could lower costs to the point where sending a million colonists to Mars is a feasible plan.

The Falcon 9 first stage that is launching this week. Image via SpaceX.

The rocket went through a successful static fire test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday (March 27.) The Falcon 9 was held clamped in place on the launch pad as it exerted 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

Bottom line: SpaceX will attempt the first reuse of a recovered first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2o6SB6l

Image via Spacex.

Tomorrow SpaceX will attempt a milestone rocket launch; that is, it’ll attempt to launch a previously used, or “flight proven,” rocket into orbital space for the first time. The Falcon 9 rocket is currently scheduled to launch tomorrow (Thursday, March 30, 2017) at 6:27 p.m. EDT (22:27 UTC). Translate to your timezone.

You can watch it live here. The page will be kept up-to-date with a countdown and automatically turn on the live video when it becomes available.

This same rocket was used last April to send a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS). It landed on April 8 in the Atlantic Ocean on a SpaceX drone ship named Of Course I Still Love You. This time, the spacecraft will carry an SES-10 satellite for coverage over Latin America.

How big a deal is this? It’s a very big deal, says The Planetary Society’s Jason Davis:

SpaceX’s entire philosophy revolves around the concept of reusability. Company CEO Elon Musk has been dreaming about reusable rockets since the company’s inception 15 years ago, when there was only a Falcon LV—which later became the Falcon 1 Musk proudly displayed on the Washington, D.C. National Mall in 2003. The company’s website says reusability is “the key to making human life multi-planetary” because it could lower costs to the point where sending a million colonists to Mars is a feasible plan.

The Falcon 9 first stage that is launching this week. Image via SpaceX.

The rocket went through a successful static fire test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday (March 27.) The Falcon 9 was held clamped in place on the launch pad as it exerted 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

Bottom line: SpaceX will attempt the first reuse of a recovered first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2o6SB6l