The privately-run space company and NASA hope to send the rocket, loaded with 4,100 pounds of goods, to the astronauts at the International Space Station. In October, another rocket, launched by Orbital Sciences Corporation and NASA, exploded.
Watch the expecred 6:20 a.m. ET launch live:
Private company SpaceX and NASA plan to launch an unmanned rocket to the International Space Station on Tuesday morning to help resupply the six astronauts there.
In October, another company, Orbital Sciences Corporation, tried to launch an unmanned rocket, but it exploded. There were no injuries.
There's an additional twist, as the AP reported:
SpaceX is making another supply run to the International Space Station for NASA. But it's the rocket's return — not its takeoff — that has space fans talking.
Minutes after Tuesday morning's planned launch from Cape Canaveral, the first stage of the unmanned Falcon rocket will aim for a vertical test landing on a barge in the Atlantic. The 14-story booster will soar close to 150 miles high, before flying back down and attempting to settle upright on the floating platform — close to the size of a football field.
"When you look at it on the ground, I think it's probably a very, very big platform, a big spaceport," Hans Koenigsmann, vice president for mission assurance at SpaceX, said Monday on the eve of launch. "But if you look at it from, I think, almost 150 or so miles up in suborbit, then it looks like a very, very small place to land on."
LINK: NASA Rocket Explodes During Liftoff In Virginia
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1HEFjhX
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