SpaceX Aims for Key Test of Most Powerful Rocket Yet

SpaceX plans to perform a Falcon 9 rocket static fire test Thursday afternoon, according to tweets today from SpaceX and its commercial satellite customer, Orbcomm Inc.

It’s the first flight by Elon Musk’s Hawthorne, California-based launch company since one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded in mid-flight during an unmanned June 28 space station cargo mission for NASA.

The launch, expected approximately three days after a successful test fire, will carry 11 satellites that belong to communications company ORBCOMM into orbit.

If the static fire test is a success, SpaceX will launch its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend. “There are a number of improvements in the rocket”, Space News quoted Musk when he spoke at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.

But the company’s CEO posted on Twitter that they’ve been having issues with the rocket’s new liquid oxygen system.

A faulty strut in the rocket was the cause of the explosion, the company said earlier this year. As Business Insider notes, that’s about 200,000 pounds more thrust than before, equivalent to adding another engine’s worth of power (the rocket runs on 9 Merlin engines). “Deep cryo liquid oxygen presenting some challenges”.

In its ongoing efforts to develop reusable rockets, SpaceX is expected to try an experimental landing of the rocket’s first stage, either on ocean platform or possibly for the first time at a designated landing site on Cape Canaveral. “The teams will continue working towards a static fire today to verify the rocket’s readiness and aim towards launching a few days after the static fire is completed”.