SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in 10 minutes Monday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 5,800 pounds of supplies and experiments.
Liftoff is set for 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT) Monday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.
It will be the 52nd flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and SpaceX’s eighth launch of the year. Working under contract to NASA, Monday’s launch will be the 14th of least 26 SpaceX resupply missions to depart for the space station.
SpaceX does not intend to recover the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on Monday’s mission. The booster is already a veteran of one launch in August 2017, when it propelled a previous SpaceX Dragon resupply mission toward the space station.
T-0:00:00: Liftoff
After the rocket’s nine Merlin engines pass an automated health check, hold-down clamps will release the Falcon 9 booster for liftoff from pad 40.
T+0:01:00: Mach 1
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Mach 1, the speed of sound.
T+0:01:08: Max Q
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.
T+0:02:41: MECO
The Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.
T+0:02:45: Stage 1 Separation
The Falcon 9’s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.
T+0:02:52: Second Stage Ignition
The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for an approximately 6-minute burn to put the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.
T+0:09:03: SECO
The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a target orbit with a low point of approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers), a high point of approximately 223 miles (360 kilometers) and an inclination of 51.6 degrees. The second stage will reignite for a de-orbit burn soon after deploying the Dragon spacecraft, aiming for a destructive re-entry over the Southern Ocean south of Australia.
T+0:10:03: Dragon Separation
The Dragon spacecraft separates from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage.
T+0:11:00: Solar Arrays Deployed
The Dragon spacecraft’s two solar array wings extend one-at-a-time to a span of 54 feet (16.5 meters).
Russia’s Progress MS-08 cargo carrier glided to an automated radar-guided link-up with the International Space Station on Thursday with three tons of fuel, water, supplies and experiments.
For the second time in less than 24 hours, a robotic resupply freighter departed Earth Friday for the International Space Station, this time aboard a Russian Soyuz booster launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Three new space station residents blasted off Wednesday on a fast-track six-hour pursuit of the orbiting research complex, kicking off five months in space. The U.S.-Russian-Japanese space crew lifted off at 2102 GMT (5:02 p.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and docking occurred 0245 GMT (10:45 p.m. EDT).
