SpaceX hopes to take a giant leap forward in rocket technology a few minutes after Friday’s scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 booster taking up 2.5 tons of critical supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.
An ocean-going cargo barge modified to serve as a landing pad for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster is set to depart the Port of Jacksonville for a journey into the Atlantic Ocean ahead of Friday’s launch of a space station cargo mission from Cape Canaveral.
The launch of SpaceX’s next resupply mission to the International Space Station has been rescheduled for no earlier than Dec. 19 to make sure the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon supply ship are ready for flight.
SpaceX will test out new stabilizing fins that could help land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge in the Atlantic Ocean after liftoff on a space station resupply mission in mid-December, according to Elon Musk, the company’s billionaire leader.
A novel NOAA climate observatory with a unique past arrived at Cape Canaveral to begin two months of launch preparations, testing, and fueling before liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.