Watch SpaceX Launch Its Third Rocket in Two Weeks

SpaceX has now completed more missions in 2017 than any other year since its founding—and it’s still got five months to go.
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Update: Just before liftoff, SpaceX's Sunday Intelsat-35E launch was aborted. The next launch window opened Monday, July 3 at 7:37 pm Eastern, and launch was pushed back to 8:35 pm due to weather. Monday's launch opportunity was aborted yet again, just nine seconds before liftoff; SpaceX spent July 4 doing a full system review, and the next launch attempt will occur at 7:38 pm Eastern, July 5.

SpaceX is making haste toward its ultimate goal: to launch, recover, refurbish, then re-launch a single booster within 24 hours. Elon Musk’s spaceflight company achieved dual (bi-coastal) missions within two days last weekend, and intends to keep that momentum going this Sunday with another Falcon 9 flight. SpaceX has now completed more missions in 2017 than any other year since its founding—and it’s still got five months to go.

The mission to geostationary orbit is slated to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this weekend atop a brand new booster. The one-hour launch window opens at 7:36 pm Eastern with a backup window reserved for Monday. This Falcon 9 won’t return home, though—it’s doomed to an ocean death. But don’t mourn: After 60 years of single-use rocket launches, it will have plenty of company at the bottom of the sea.

Why no landing? This launch’s payload, the Intelsat-35E satellite, is supposed to weigh over 13,000 pounds, and it’s heading to an orbital destination between 22,000 and 26,000 miles above Earth’s surface. There simply won’t be enough fuel remaining to navigate the booster back. That’s the problem SpaceX is trying to fix with its upgraded Falcon 9, scheduled to debut later this year.

It’s kind of nuts that today, just a year and a half after SpaceX landed its very first rocket booster, we have to call attention to a crash landing. Since that first ground landing on December 21, 2015, the company has recovered boosters 13 times, launching two of those flight-proven rockets on second missions. Still disappointed in the lack of reusability this weekend? Don’t be, because the company’s Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Monday. That homeward-bound Dragon was the first capsule SpaceX reused for a second mission to the orbiting laboratory.

Last weekend’s double header launches began with the liftoff of SpaceX’s second reusable rocket from Florida’s space coast with a Bulgarian satellite on board. The company landed the booster on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, but not without some drama. Before liftoff, Musk tweeted that the “Falcon 9 will experience its highest ever reentry force and heat in today’s launch, good chance rocket booster doesn’t make it back.” But it did, and the “extra toasty” touchdown (as Musk put it) made that particular booster the first to be recovered off both coasts.

Just 49.5 hours after Friday’s mission, SpaceX teams in California launched its second Iridium satellite on a new booster and recovered it on the West coast droneship Just Read the Instructions. For this return flight, SpaceX used its shiny new titanium grid fins to guide the booster back to Earth. Previous Falcon 9 rockets have been equipped with a set of four aluminum fins that can barely take the heat of rentry—they even catch fire sometimes, which doesn’t exactly promote reusability.

SpaceX will use its new fins to address the heat issues while increasing aerodynamic capability and reusability. The new hardware resembles a bear trap with indents on its leading edge and noticeably stand out from the rest of the Falcon 9’s fuselage. The titanium grid fins are individually cut from single pieces of the metal—Musk claims they’re the largest things ever cast from solid titanium. Sadly, we won’t be seeing the new titanium fins in action on Sunday’s launch because this poor booster is on a suicide mission. Even sadder, it won’t have any legs.

In preparation for Intelsat-35, SpaceX completed a successful test-fire of the Falcon 9’s engines on Thursday while holding the rocket down on Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX confirmed with WIRED that the historic pad—once used by NASA to send humans to the moon—needed no refurbishment after last Friday’s reusable rocket launch. If they pull off the launch, the quick turnaround will mark the shortest window between launches at the pad. The previous record? Fourteen days, set by SpaceX this year.