The Dragon spacecraft sits atop the Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for launch on Friday, (credit: SpaceX)
A little more than nine months after the loss of its Dragon spacecraft during a cargo flight to the International Space Station, SpaceX is ready to set matters right. On Wednesday, the company completed a successful static firing of its Falcon 9 rocket engines, and a Thursday readiness review found all systems were go for a launch on Friday afternoon.
The resupply flight will carry 3,136kg of cargo to the station inside the Dragon capsule, including the 1,413kg Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. And while there has been some excitement about the potential for expandable habitats in space, which may lead to much larger living quarters for human activity, much of the anticipation for Friday's launch again revolves around whether SpaceX will make a historic landing on a drone ship at sea. Launch is scheduled for 4:43pm ET (9:43pm BST) on Friday.
During a news conference on Thursday, Hans Koenigsmann, a senior launch official with SpaceX, said the company has learned from previous attempts to gently set the Falcon 9 down at sea. Nevertheless the procedure remains a tricky one, given that SpaceX is trying to land a 70-meter tall rocket stage in the middle of the ocean after it has flown into space at six times the speed of sound. "I certainly hope we're going to nail the landing this time," Koenigsmann admitted.
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