SpaceX Falcon rocket on pad
SpaceX is getting ready to launch its Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX is planning to launch its Falcon 9 rocket for the first time in nearly six months on Sunday, and says it will try flying the first-stage booster back to Florida for a landing for the first time.

The Falcon 9 has been grounded since a launch failure in June that ruined a resupply mission to the International Space Station. But on Friday, an upgraded version of the two-stage rocket passed a static fire test on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The successful test set the stage for SpaceX’s return to flight. The Falcon 9 is due to launch an array of 11 telecommunication satellites into orbit for Orbcomm during a minute-long launch window at 8:29 p.m. ET (5:29 p.m. PT) on Sunday.

In a tweet, SpaceX founder Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX intends to program the uncrewed rocket’s first-stage guidance system to bring the booster back to Florida after separation from the second stage:

The plan calls for the first stage to set itself down at a Cape Canaveral test range that has been known as Space Launch Complex 13. SpaceX has renamed the facility Landing Zone 1.

The capability to recover and reuse rocket hardware is a key part of Musk’s vision of reducing the cost of spaceflight by two orders of magnitude – potentially opening the way for affordable private-sector trips to Mars. SpaceX has tried with mixed success to land boosters on an oceangoing platform. This will be the company’s first land-based attempt.The Federal Aviation Administration’s go-ahead was required in order for SpaceX to proceed.

In a news release, SpaceX said “there is a possibility that residents of northern and central Brevard County, Fla., may hear a sonic boom during landing.” The company plans to provide live webcast coverage beginning at about 8:05 p.m. ET (5:05 p.m. PT).

Musk isn’t the only one to have a vision of landable, reusable rockets: Last month, Blue Origin – a space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and headquartered in Kent, Wash. – sent its uncrewed New Shepard suborbital rocket to the edge of outer space and brought it back for a landing at the company’s West Texas test facility.

SpaceX says landing the Falcon 9’s first stage is more difficult and more significant. Unlike the New Shepard, the Falcon 9 is powerful enough for orbital launches.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner
An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner at the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

NASA hails another Boeing space taxi

NASA has ordered a second space taxi from the Boeing Co. to carry astronauts to the International Space Station a couple of years from now.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule and an upgraded version of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft won’t go into service until 2017 at the earliest, but NASA has to put in its orders well in advance to get the ball rolling. NASA has been providing billions of dollars to support the commercial spaceship development effort.

“Once certified by NASA, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon each will be capable of two crew launches to the station per year,” Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said today in a news release. “Placing orders for those missions now really sets us up for a sustainable future aboard the International Space Station.”

Boeing received its first order in May, and last month SpaceX received an initial order as well. Under the terms of its contracts, NASA is guaranteeing that it will order at least two space taxi flights from each company. However, the flight schedule – including who gets to go first – will be determined at a later date.

When the space taxis get up and running, NASA will no longer have to purchase seats on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft at the price of $70 million per seat. And because of the added lifeboat capability, the space station’s maximum crew complement can be expanded from six to seven.

NASA says the spaceship development efforts are on track, and this week Congress gave the Commercial Crew Program everything that NASA was asking for in the current fiscal year.

This is an updated version of a roundup report that was first published on Dec. 18.

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