SpaceX will kick off a busy 2015 calendar playing catch-up, with liftoff of a Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station set for Tuesday after a delay from December.
A barge and command ship chartered by SpaceX are stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s East Coast in a bid to recover a used-up Falcon 9 rocket stage Tuesday in a long-theorized — but never tried — maneuver that could lay the groundwork for a big advance in space technology.
Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent into orbit from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX’s fifth operational resupply mission to the International Space Station.
SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship wrapped up a 29-day stay at the International Space Station on Tuesday, departing the complex with with nearly 3,700 pounds of research specimens and return cargo before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
The expended first stage of a Long March rocket tumbled into a forested region of southwestern China a few minutes after successfully blasting off Dec. 31 with a Chinese weather satellite, and photographers were there to capture the booster’s fall back to Earth.
There were more successful space launches in 2014 than in any year since 1992, with Russia, the United States and China responsible for more than 80 percent of global launch activity.
Forecasters predict mostly cloudy conditions and a chance of light rain for Tuesday morning’s scheduled takeoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a space station-bound supply ship, with a 40 percent chance weather could prevent liftoff during an instantaneous predawn launch opportunity.