It has become routine to see a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and then watch the first stage booster come back for a soft landing aboard an autonomous drone ship well offshore in the Atlantic. The company's next mission, however, is the rare return of a Falcon 9 straight to shore.
Elon Musk's rocket company will launch the Argentine Saocom 1B earth observation satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday evening. Two smaller spaceships, a commercial radar satellite called Sequoia and a weather data satellite called Gnomes-1, will also be on board.
From the laboratory to your inbox. Get the latest scientific stories from CNET every week.
SpaceX has only had one more landing as part of one in the past 12 months Supply mission to the International Space Station on March 7th. Several factors determine whether SpaceX lands on land or on a drone ship. What matters is the trajectory and how far the missile is from the coast once it is separated from the second stage missile.
As reported by NASASpaceflight.com last year, Saocom 1B will take off and fly on a polar trajectory to the South Pole. Once launched, the Falcon 9 will orbit the Florida coast and allow the attempt to land the ground cushion. This is the first orbital launch from Florida using this southern polar corridor since 1960.
The SpaceX Starship prototype makes the first jump.
The SpaceX launch of the Saocom 1A companion satellite in 2018 was also unveiled a floor mat, but at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The start this Thursday was originally supposed to be from the west coast as well, but was eventually relocated to Florida and was delayed in part thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The launch is currently set at 4:19 p.m. (PT Friday) after being pushed back a day from Thursday due to other delays at the Kennedy Space Center.
We should see the first stage rocket return to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1), which is only about 7 miles from the launch pad, a little less than 10 minutes after takeoff.
As soon as a livestream feed is available, it will be embedded here as usual, where you can come back and post about 15 minutes before the start.
Source link
