SpaceX aims for Sunday rocket launch

The new and improved Falcon 9 rocket underwent a static fire test at Space Launch Complex 40 on Friday and SpaceX engineers have been reviewing the data from that test. Observers may then be able to see the orange glow of an engine firing in darkness to slow the booster’s descent toward concrete pads at SpaceX’s “Landing Complex 1” at Cape Canaveral.

Musk isn’t the only one to have a vision of landable, reusable rockets: Last month, Blue Origin – a space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and headquartered in Kent, Wash. – sent its uncrewed New Shepard suborbital rocket to the edge of outer space and brought it back for a landing at the company’s West Texas test facility. Perhaps that’s what has motivated SpaceX to give up the floating barge idea in favor of solid ground.

After the rocket delivers its payload of satellites into orbit, SpaceX will aim to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 – which is the long, towering portion of the rocket – at a former US Air Force rocket and missile testing range that was last used in 1978.

Let’s hope Elon Musk and his team of engineers fixed everything that caused the explosion last time.

So, if SpaceX was launching satellites into orbit, that mission would exhaust all of its booster’s fuel, leaving none left for a return flight.

While the soft ocean landings were a success, SpaceX didn’t retrieve any of those rockets for reuse – mostly because, after landing, the 14-story-tall, 67,000-pound rocket would tip over and suffer significant damage.

Some of the upgrades SpaceX has made to its Falcon 9 fleet includes the possibility of more rocket landing attempts.

Residents may wish to follow the company’s launch webcast for real time information concerning Sunday’s launch. The Federal Aviation Administration’s go-ahead was required in order for SpaceX to proceed.

NASASpaceFight.com reports the time of launch is set at 8:29 p.m. This is an instantaneous launch window, which means they have to launch at that time, or they’ll have to scrub for the day.

The stakes are high for SpaceX, which has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to supply the astronauts living at the International Space Station over numerous back-and-forth trips with its Dragon cargo ship.

The Falcon 9 booster works on 9 such Merlin engines, thus the case is the company has got an additional engine’s worth of power out of the latest modification.

Six months after one of its unmanned rockets exploded, SpaceX is expected to return to flight today in a highly-anticipated launch in which the company will also attempt to land the first stage of its rocket.