At 20:10 UTC (16:10 EDT, 21:10 BST) on April 14, the Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral, delivering science and supplies to the ISS. The mission, named CRS-6, is the sixth in SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. After weather scrubbed the first launch attempt on Monday, SpaceX hope to get the rocket off the ground Tuesday's try or else an extended delay may be required.
Upon launch, the nine Merlin 1D engines will ignite, lifting the Falcon 9 rocket off the launchpad and towards space. The first stage will fire for 180 seconds, before separating from the rocket. From here the second stage will burn until the required orbit has been met. This orbit will allow for a rendezvous to take place with the ISS two days later.
Upon launch, the nine Merlin 1D engines will ignite, lifting the Falcon 9 rocket off the launchpad and towards space. The first stage will fire for 180 seconds, before separating from the rocket. From here the second stage will burn until the required orbit has been met. This orbit will allow for a rendezvous to take place with the ISS two days later.
Although the primary mission is sending the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS nominally, the secondary mission is the one currently turning the most heads. SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of their Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Atlantic, with the hope of bringing it back to land and sending it off for testing in Texas (and possibly New Mexico if refurbished). As the graphic above shows, the Falcon 9 has a number of features that allows it to perform the manoeuvres required to put the first stage on the correct trajectory towards the barge. The grid fins give the rocket greater stability on descent, and the landing legs enable a soft landing on the barge without damaging the Merlin 1D engines.
The launch is currently set to go ahead on Tuesday, after a successful static fire on Saturday. SpaceX use the static fire test as a dress rehearsal ahead of the real launch in order to ensure all systems are working. A short duration firing of the engines allows the relevant data to be collected and analysed. With the data collected being acceptable, launch was first attempted on Monday. However, due to poor weather conditions, particularly in terms of anvil clouds, the launch was scrubbed to Tuesday. Current weather forecasts don't look great, so weather will once again be a worry come launch time.
If you wish to watch the launch live, make sure to tune in to either NASA TV or the SpaceX webcast on Tuesday!
If you wish to watch the launch live, make sure to tune in to either NASA TV or the SpaceX webcast on Tuesday!