Tuesday's SpaceX Launch Could Forever Change Spaceflight
But the most important part of the launch will not be what goes up, but what comes down. After the Falcon 9 rocket has emptied most of its fuel, it will detach from the Dragon spacecraft.
That's when things get interesting, as the rocket, using GPS tracking, navigates its way down to a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. But it won't be easy.
SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk will conduct an AMA on Reddit about the launch at 9:00 pm EST.
Reusable Rockets
No first-stage rocket has ever been recovered for reuse. If successful on Tuesday, the company will set a new standard in space exploration - one that could eventually cut the cost of space travel by a factor of 100, according to Musk.
Building a rocket that can be used more than once is an extremely important step in ultimately sending a manned space mission to and from Mars that could use the rocket to land and, more importantly, leave Mars to return to Earth.
In addition to possibly changing spaceflight forever, the launch will also ferry 3,700 pounds of science experiments, spare parts, food, water, and other supplies to the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft. Then, the excitement will start.
It's a risky endeavor, which Elon Musk estimates has only a 50% probability of success. "During previous attempts, we could only expect a landing accuracy of within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). For this attempt, we're targeting a landing accuracy of within 10 meters (33 feet)," SpaceX said in a statement.
Doing this will be like "trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm," the statement said.
On Jan.5 , Musk tweeted a photo of the drone ship navigating its way into position to prep for the landing:
A Drone Ship For A Remote Rocket
Last year, SpaceX began their the resuable rocket endeavor with multiple attempts to land a rocket softly in the ocean. A soft landing maintains the integrity and reusability of the rocket. But after the company in April successfully achieved the first soft landing in history, the rocket toppled sideways in the high seas, damaging it beyond repair.
Because landing in the water won't work, the team has turned to something else.
"I think we've got a chance of landing on a floating landing platform," Elon Musk said in October at the MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium. "And if we land on that, then I think we'll be able to re-fly that booster."
Just last month, Musk tweeted images of the football-field-long platform. SpaceX plans to use GPS tracking, the rocket's newly attached "X-wings," and other technology to help safely guide the multimillion-dollar Falcon 9 onto the platform.
The hypersonic X-wings, shown in the picture above, will deploy upon descent and help the rocket steer onto the platform. The rocket is about 70 feet wide, and the platform has a width about three times the size of that, so precision is key in this game-changing attempt.
"It's probably not more than a 50% chance or less of landing it on the platform," Musk said, still seeming optimistic at the MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium. "But there's at least a dozen launches that will occur over the next 12 months, and I think it's quite likely, probably 80 to 90% likely, that one of those flights will be able to land and re-fly. So I think we're quite close."
You can watch live, starting at 6:00 am EST, here: