This SpaceX photograph captures the company’s Falcon 9 rocket just before it landed successfully on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 14, 2017. The stage will ride again June 23 as SpaceX launches a communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After a slight delay, a used SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to make its second trip to space today (June 23) to orbit the first communications satellite for Bulgaria. The BulgariaSat-1 launch will mark the Falcon 9’s second flight this year, and may kick off a double-header with a Sunday SpaceX launch as well.
You can watch the launch live online here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX.
The rocket with pre-flown booster is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A during a window extending from 2:10 to 4:10 p.m. EDT (1810-2010 GMT). On Jan. 14, the company successfully launched and landed the booster while putting 10 communications satellites into low-Earth orbit. This time, the booster will help loft Bulgaria’s communications satellite before landing again on SpaceX’s landing pad near the Florida launch site.
If successful, this will mark SpaceX’s 11th successful first-stage landing and the company’s second time re-flying a previously used booster. SpaceX also reused a flown Dragon cargo capsule to bring supplies to the International Space Station earlier this month.
SpaceX has a second launch planned within 48 hours — on Sunday (June 25) a new Falcon 9 is set to launch 10 satellites for the Virginia-based company Iridium across the country from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellites will form part of the company’s 70-satellite Iridium NEXT constellation. You will be able to watch that launch live on Space.com as well.
Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .
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