SpaceX went through with its last rocket launch in June this year and that one didn’t go as planned, the Falcon 9 rocket exploded soon after its launch, and since then all launches have been put on hold. Today SpaceX is going to launch another Falcon 9 after a six month hiatus and if that wasn’t significant enough it’s going to try and land that rocket back on solid ground.
The company’s previous attempts to safely land its reusable rocket haven’t succeeded, it tried doing that on a floating barge in the sea, and never quite got it.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently announced that Blue Origins, his private spaceflight company, has been able to securely land a reusable rocket on solid ground. Perhaps that’s what has motivated SpaceX to give up the floating barge idea in favor of solid ground.
On this mission the Falcon 9 is going to take up 11 satellites to orbit for its client, New Jersey-based communications firm Orbcomm, with the first stage of the rocket that contains the fuel and engines separating from the rest and coming back to land on Earth.
The exercise will take place at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8:39 PM ET today, December 20th provided that everything goes according to plan, that there are no complications and that the weather doesn’t throw a hammer in the works.