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  Newsmakers   SpaceX to launch ‘parking spot’ at ISS

SpaceX to launch ‘parking spot’ at ISS

Published : Jul 18, 2016, 12:33 am IST
Updated : Jul 18, 2016, 12:33 am IST

SpaceX is poised to launch its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Monday, carrying a key piece of equipment that was lost in 2015 in a rocket explosion.

SpaceX is poised to launch its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Monday, carrying a key piece of equipment that was lost in 2015 in a rocket explosion.

The international docking adapter will function as a parking spot for space taxis, enabling commercial spaceships carrying astronauts to latch on securely to the orbiting outpost. It is the first of two docking adapters needed for the crew spaceships being built by SpaceX and Boeing, with those pioneer commercial flights planned for 2017 and 2018. For Monday’s launch, the gumdrop-shaped Dragon spaceship is packed with nearly 5,000 pounds (nearly 2,300 kg) of gear, including science experiments and equipment for the astronauts living in space. After blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 12.45 am (0445 GMT), SpaceX will attempt to return the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to an upright landing on solid ground at the Nasa facility.

The California-based company headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk has already managed to land its rockets on land and on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean several times, as part of an ongoing effort to make rocket parts as re-usable as components from commercial airplanes. According to Hans Koenigsmann, vice-president of flight reliability at SpaceX, setting the rocket back down on solid ground requires more propellant than a water landing, but also affords a larger and more stable area for touchdown. “I think it is going to be an easier trajectory than the last one,” he told reporters. “I am pretty optimistic at this point in time that we will land it, but I would always knock on wood. Just by the nature of this manoeuvre, it is pretty challenging.”

SpaceX is still in the process of scheduling the first rocket launch.

Location: United States, Florida, Miami