SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in 10 minutes Friday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 4,800 pounds of supplies and experiments.
Liftoff is set for 1536 GMT (10:36 a.m. EST) Friday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.
It will be the 45th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and SpaceX’s 17th launch of the year. Working under contract to NASA, Friday’s launch will be the 13th of least 26 SpaceX resupply missions to depart for the space station.
The illustrated timeline below outlines the launch sequence for the Falcon 9 flight with the Dragon spacecraft. It does not include times for the experimental descent and landing attempt of the first stage booster at Landing Zone 1, a former Atlas missile launch facility about 6 miles (9 kilometers) south of pad 40.
Three ignitions of the first stage engines after separation will steer the booster back toward Florida’s Space Coast from the northeast. Here are key times for the landing maneuvers:
- T+plus 2 minutes, 38 seconds: First stage boost-back burn begins
- T+plus 6 minutes, 7 seconds: First stage entry burn begins
- T+plus 7 minutes, 46 seconds: First stage landing
Touchdown at Landing Zone 1 should occur during a landing burn with only the first stage’s center Merlin 1D engine firing.
T-0:00:00: Liftoff
T+0:01:10: Mach 1
T+0:01:18: Max Q
T+0:02:21: MECO
T+0:02:25: Stage 1 Separation
T+0:02:33: Second Stage Ignition
T+0:09:00: SECO
T+0:10:00: Dragon Separation
T+0:11:00: Solar Arrays Deployed
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