SpaceX, the American space transport services company owned by billionaire playboy Elon Musk, delayed on Tuesday the launch of its cargo rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The flight has now been postponed twice due to a fault in an actuator discovered less than two minutes prior to launch. The Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon capsule in tow is now scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral on Saturday morning.
The launch was the fifth in line as part of a multi-billion dollar contract with NASA to resupply and replenish resources aboard the ISS across a dozen scheduled flights. The unique aspect of the mission was the hope that it would feature, and for the first time ever, a rocket-re-usability test of the company’s flagship Falcon 9 rocket system.
Traditionally, booster rockets and the primary rockets of space shuttles fall back to Earth, burning up on re-entry or sinking into empty waters. SpaceX is pioneering technology that will salvage the first stage of the two-part booster system by slowing its descent back to Earth and maneuvering it onto a floating platform docked in the Atlantic Ocean.
The primary aim of the postponed launch was and remains the integral delivery of some 5,000 pounds of food, experiments, and tools necessary to maintain the manned presence aboard the ISS. However, the unprecedented attempt to bring back the blaster via a controlled landing is part of a strategy by billionaire founder Elon Musk to make the process of spaceflights more efficient, as part of a broader plan to make commercial spaceflight a fiscal possibility.
You can watch the mission’s launch live on Saturday at 9:47 AM (GMT) live via SpaceX's live feed .
