About six months back SpaceX went through with a routine Falcon 9 rocket launch, it was an uncrewed mission carrying thousands to tons of supplies for astronauts aboard the International Space Station, unfortunately the rocket exploded merely seconds after it launched leading SpaceX to abandon all future launches until it figured out what the problem was and fixed it. The private space company was supposed to go through with its first Falcon 9 launch since the explosion yesterday but it has now delayed the launch.
This time around it’s yet another uncrewed mission that’s going to take 11 satellites up into orbit for a telecommunications client of SpaceX, but that’s not what makes this launch one to watch, SpaceX is going to try and land the reusable Falcon 9 rocket on solid ground.
The private space company has previously tried landing its reusable rocket on a floating barge in the sea but those attempts have never succeeded, so this time around it’s changing up the approach, going with a landing on solid ground at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed via Twitter yesterday that the company won’t be going through with the launch for want of better weather, the launch was thus delayed by 24 hours, with the Falcon 9 now scheduled for lift off at 8:33 pm ET today. There’s an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather to go ahead with the launch.
This time around the landing attempts follows the successful one of Blue Origins, another private space company that happens to be owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Blue Origins was recently able to land its reusable rocket on solid ground, beating Musk’s SpaceX in the race to do so.