New Delhi: In its second attempt to land a rocket back on solid ground after launching a spacecraft to orbit, Elon Musk's SpaceX will try to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster on a launch pad in Florida after sending an uncrewed cargo Dragon spacecraft toward the International Space Station for a NASA resupply mission.
The lift-off will take place at 12:45 am EDT. If the launch is successful, this will be counted as the fifth rocket booster SpaceX has brought back to Earth for a soft landing. The first land landing took place towards the end of 2015.
As per NASA, the Dragon spacecraft is loaded with about 5,000 pounds of experiments and materials for the International Space Station. The payloads include a docking adapter needed for future spacecraft headed to the station including those from partners Boeing and SpaceX for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft also carries hardware and experiment elements needed for dozens of research investigations that will take place in orbit during Expeditions 48 and 49.
The launch, as well as the landing can be viewed on NASA's live TV.
