Late-night rocketry: SpaceX to try landing a “very hot and fast” rocket
The SpaceX webcast for the JCSat launch should begin at about 1am ET.
Late tonight SpaceX will attempt to launch its first rocket since the triumphant landing of its Falcon 9 first stage a month ago. The launch window opens at 1:21am ET (6:21am UTC) and will last for two hours. The primary payload for tonight’s launch is a Japanese broadcast satellite.
The company will again attempt to land its first stage on the automated drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. However this attempt will prove more dynamically challenging than the April landing. That mission carried a Dragon spacecraft, which was destined for the International Space Station about 400km above Earth. Tonight the Falcon 9 rocket must deliver the Japanese satellite into orbit 22,000km above the planet’s surface.
As a result, early on Friday morning, the first stage will accelerate to a greater velocity, moving almost parallel to the surface and away from the launch site; it will then release the second stage and the primary payload. This trajectory will leave the vehicle with far less fuel to arrest its horizontal motion and control its descent to the barge waiting below. “JCSat is pushing the envelope as a very hot and fast mission,” Elon Musk tweeted a week ago.
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