SpaceX is taking another shot at a historic launch today, should everything go as planned. It’s targeting a launch window of 10:36 AM EST (7:36 AM PST) this morning for its CRS-13 mission, which is its 13th resupply mission for the International Space Station.
The mission will deliver a payload of around 4,800 lbs of supplies and experimentation materials for ISS research. It’ll dock at the space station for around a month, with its supplies being unloaded, and return cargo being loaded up, before returning to Earth and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
This is a significant mission for SpaceX not just for the usual reason (delivering supplies to the ISS for NASA is a key part of SpaceX’s ongoing business) but also because this marks the first time that the private space company helmed by Elon Musk will attempt to use both a flight-proven Falcon 9 first stage booster, and a re-used Dragon capsule.
Combining refurbished capsule and refurbished booster successfully will mark another step along the road to proving out SpaceX’s long-term mission of making spaceflight efficient, affordable and fast in terms of reusable spacecraft turnaround times. SpaceX will also be attempting to recover the Falcon 9 booster once again with a landing at its Cape Canaveral LZ-1 landing pad.
Weather was looking 90 percent favorable for this launch as of Thursday, so hopefully it’ll go off as planned after being delayed from its earlier launch window on December 12. The stream above should begin around 15 minutes prior to the 10:36 AM ET launch window.