LIVE: SpaceX attempts a game-changing rocket launch and landing
Yesterday, SpaceX was forced to abort the launch in the final few minutes when an anvil cloud drifted within 10 nautical miles of the launch complex.
The launch is rescheduled for Tuesday, April 14 at 4:10 p.m. NASA officials say the weather forecast for today looks much better.
Today's launch will be the second time that SpaceX has tried to land a massive, 140-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket on a platform floating offshore in the Atlantic ocean. (The first landing attempt took place last January and ended with a fiery explosion.)
If Tuesday's rescheduled landing attempt is successful, then SpaceX will have proven that a future of affordable, commercial spaceflight is possible. The key to that future is reusable rockets that can be repeatedly launched and relaunched, eventually even within the same day.
The landing attempt will immediately follow a SpaceX launch that is scheduled for lift off out of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at exactly 4:10 pm on Tuesday.
NASA TV is streaming the launch live starting around 3:oo p.m. ET on Tuesday. The live stream is provided below:
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
SpaceX will start its own live stream at 3:55 p.m.
Attached to the Falcon 9 rocket is a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft will ferry 4,300 pounds of supplies to the astronauts floating aboard the International Space Station (ISS). These supplies include water, food, and important materials to support over 250 science experiments that NASA's one-year-mission astronauts will complete during their long stay in space.
As Dragon makes its way to the ISS, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket will fall back to Earth, and if everything goes according to plan, it will use GPS tracking to fly back to the floating SpaceX drone ship and softly touch down.
Five years ago, a landing attempt like this was completely unheard of, but SpaceX is paving the way for a new era of reusable rockets. The company, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has gone to great lengths to build the foundation for a future of cheaper space travel.
So far, SpaceX has never recovered a rocket for reuse. If Tuesday's attempt is a success, it will be a game changer.