SpaceX has a very busy launch schedule - 8 possible launches before year end

SpaceX appears fully recovered from it's single mission failure last year. They have managed several landings - first at it's new landing site at Cape Canaveral and then at sea - a much more difficult task, but an important one as not all missions are able to send the rocket all the way back to the cape. Landing the Falcon 9 rocket has always been a secondary mission objective - but a very important one in support of SpaceX's reusable rocket goal.

Rocket reusability is not only important for its cost savings, but also for the ability to shorting the time between launches. Even now the company is turning out missions faster than has ever been done before. And with the current schedule it will be launching multiple rockets in a single month. Here is the current launch schedule (with a lot of the exact launch dates still TBD):

Sept. 3	Amos 6
Sept. 19	Iridium Next 1-10
October	SES 10
October	EchoStar 23
October	Fermosat 5 and Sherpa
November	SES 11 (EchoStar 105)
November	Falcon Heavy Demo Flight
Nov. 11	CRS 10 (SPX 10)

Even with the their track record of quick turn arounds, this schedule would not be possible if all of the launches were from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. But with some flights out of Vandenberg AFB, and Falcon Heavy launching from the reconfigured SLC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, it could just happen.

Speaking of Falcon Heavy, with several rockets having been successfully landed now, it is what I'm looking forward to next (and I'm sure I'm not alone). Falcon Heavy has been anticipated for some time now. And had the big rocket just made a successful flight and ended up as the foundation of a new reef in the Atlantic, I would have been thrilled. But with the current landing success rate - and the presence of the landing complex - the possibility of the three Falcon 9 rockets separating and each landing itself autonomously is a real possibility. Would that be a sight to see!

Then what? We still have the manned Dragon 2 as well as the new Raptor engine (with greater power and re-useablity) to look forward to. And with these the company truly will be on course toward its big, red goal.

Falcon Heavy

UPDATED: Space Station supply mission today as SpaceX resumes its CRS schedule.

UPDATE: SpaceX has stuck the landing!  This is first successful Falcon 9 landing at sea, and was shown in real time on the live broadcast.  Congratulations!

SpaceX is sending Dragon to the ISS as it resumes its schedule of resupply missions.  The CRS-8 mission will launch shortly - 4:43 PM EDT (Apr 8, 2016).  As usual for CRS missions, the launch will be from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Once again, the Falcon 9 will attempt to land on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” (in the Atlantic Ocean).  These landings are always experimental and secondary to the main mission, but still highly anticipated.  A landing has yet to be made to a droneship, but a successful landing to the Cape Canaveral landing site was accomplished (and was fantastic to watch!), so a success at sea is not at all out of the realm of possibility.  SpaceX has been getting closer and closer.

As a reminder to those familiar with the Dragon resupply missions (or for those of you that haven't previously followed these missions), SpaceX is the only space station resupply vendor that is able to return relatively large amounts of cargo back from the ISS.  Other CRS missions send cargo to the ISS, but since the retirement of the space shuttle there has been a void in the capability to return significant amounts of cargo.

Live feed (and replay) at http://www.spacex.com/webcast
Press kit is at http://www.spacex.com/press/2016/04/07/press-kit-crs-8-dragon-mission

Test fire of the upgraded Falcon 9

[Dec. 18th] Update: The test firing of the Falcon 9 was completed, and the is data being analyzed.

Elon Musk tweeted:

"Falcon 9 is vertical on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Working towards static fire. Deep cryo liquid oxygen presenting some challenges."

It is very encouraging to see a Falcon back on the pad. Hopefully any issues - such as the "deep cryo" LOX fueling (part of the the new Falcon's "densified propellant") - can be sorted quickly in order to have plenty of time to test fire the engines and analyze the data. I don't think this would be the time to rush the process. This flight is important for getting the company back into full swing again, and I'm hopeful about watching a great launch on Sunday. But I wouldn't be surprised if it has to be delayed either, considering the new challenges that inevitably arise with any changes to the vehicle. But the thing that makes SpaceX so exciting is that they keep pushing and are continually moving forward.

Which brings me to what has always been a couched as a secondary goal of recent Falcon launches - landing it in one piece. There have been astonishing close attempts, with each getting closer and closer. And while the payday is earned by hurtling payloads into orbit, having a rocket as big as Falcon hurtle back from space and land itself would be a huge success. And one that would bring a big competitive advantage to SpaceX. There is speculation that the company may be attempting a landing on, well, land. Previous attempts have targeted a platform at sea (the "autonomous spaceport drone ship"), which I assume was to prove it could consistently hit a reasonably small target for safely reasons. But it can do that now, so if the FAA issues a landing permit they seem poised to give it a go.  They've obtained a landing site at the cape designated Landing Complex 1.

So, here's hoping the next few days are fruitful.

SpaceX Launch Tonight - DSCOVER Mission

First, my apologies for not having any posts in a while.  Hopefully I'll be back to a regular posting schedule going forward.

SpaceX will (hopefully) launch the DSCOVR mission this evening at 6:03 PM EST.  This will be the third launch window, the first two attempts being scrubbed for technical and then weather reasons.

This mission represents another milestone for SpaceX: it's first deep space mission.  The mission will attempt to place the DSCOVR satellite into the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point - a point where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth are equalized, allowing a satellite to maintain its position with minimal effort.  Why this is a big deal for SpaceX is that the Sun-Earth L1 is 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth.  That's four times farther than the Moon, and over 40 times farther than any previous SpaceX mission.  While the satellite will be deployed 35 minutes after launch, it will take 110 days for it to arrive at its destination.

I haven't found any information about  plans to recover the Falcon 9 rocket.  SpaceX stated that they would be working towards a soft landing of the first stage on each mission, but the past SpaceX mission to geostationary orbit required so much fuel that an attempt wasn'
t possible, and it seems that would also be the situation with this launch.

Links:
The official SpaceX press kit
Watch live on Livestream starting at 5:45 PM EST.