SpaceX aims to land rocket back at Cape Canaveral

James Dean | Florida Today

MELBOURNE, Fla. — SpaceX could deliver a Space Coast double-feature Sunday night, returning its Falcon 9 rocket to flight after a six-month layoff and then making a historic attempt to land the rocket's first stage back on shore.

Flying for the first time since a failure in June, an upgraded Falcon 9 is targeted for a liftoff no earlier than 8:29 p.m. ET Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with 11 communications satellites.

SpaceX on Saturday afternoon said the timing was still subject to change, hours after CEO Elon Musk had said on Twitter that things looked good for an “orbital launch and rocket landing at Cape Canaveral.”

If the launch does go off as planned, after the rumble from the rocket’s climb subsides, the flight could be punctuated by a sonic boom signaling the Falcon 9 booster's return from space.

Observers may then see the orange glow of an engine firing in darkness to slow the booster’s descent toward concrete pads at SpaceX’s “Landing Complex 1” at Cape Canaveral.

A successful touchdown on legs within 10 minutes of liftoff would be a breakthrough in Musk’s vision to lower launch costs by recovering and reusing rockets.

“It’s really a massive difference if we can make reusability work,” Musk said last week.

The anticipated attempt to fly the 14-story booster back to shore — something SpaceX has long said it was preparing to do — follows two near misses earlier this year by booster stages trying to land on platforms in the Atlantic Ocean. Both stages hit their target but ultimately crashed.

And it comes about a month after Blue Origin, a company started by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, showed such landings are possible, at least with a much smaller rocket that launched a capsule on a suborbital spaceflight from Texas.

Should nearby residents be worried about a rocket plummeting toward their backyards?

Officials say no.

As when the rocket is on its way up, the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing will be able to press a button to destroy the booster if its flight down appears headed dangerously for a populated area.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it would not issue a permit for the launch and landing if the agency thought they posed risks to the “uninvolved public.”

Still, all but non-essential personnel reportedly will be barred from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. News media will not be allowed to watch the launch from the base as is usually the case.

And representatives from SpaceX, the 45th Space Wing and FAA recently met with Brevard County officials and emergency responders to brief them about what to expect.

“There would be an extraordinarily low chance, if any, of an off-site mishap,” said Brevard County Fire Chief Mark Schollmeyer, who participated in the meeting.

SpaceX's primary mission on Sunday, of course, is to return the Falcon 9 to flight safely and deliver Orbcomm’s 11 satellites to their proper orbits about 500 miles up.

SpaceX started the year strong, launching its sixth Falcon 9 in as many months on June 28.

But just over two minutes into that flight of International Space Station cargo, a strut snapped in the Falcon 9’s upper stage. The liquid oxygen tank ruptured, causing the entire rocket to lose control and break apart.

“It’s quite emotionally traumatic, actually,” Musk said last week of the experience. “Rockets are hard.”

SpaceX has a backlog of satellite customers awaiting rides. NASA is counting on the Falcon 9 to fly cargo to and from the space station, and within about two years to start flying astronauts.

The Orbcomm mission is ideal for the Falcon 9’s return because it is a relatively simple one, requiring only one burn of the upper stage engine.

With upgrades that have increased its thrust at liftoff to 1.5 million pounds, the rocket will have far more power than it needs to get the 11 small satellites to a low orbit.

After the satellites are dropped off, within about a half-hour, SpaceX plans to re-light the rocket’s upper stage engine in a test of what it must do to place satellites in much higher orbits on subsequent flights.