SpaceX has committed to a very aggressive launch schedule for the remainder of 2018, and this back-to-back demonstration of master level rocketry is a direct result! We just finished cheering and celebrating the successful launch on Friday (albeit with shortened video thanks to NOAA involvement) and now we look ahead to the scheduled 4:30pm EDT Monday afternoon launch of a Space Station resupply mission.
This will be the 14th mission (code named CRS-14) for SpaceX under the ‘Commercial Resupply Services Contract’ from NASA, and will include about 5,800 pounds of equipment. This is a repeat attempt of a launch which was delayed from February 9th and again from March 13th. Unfortunately the current plan is not to attempt a landing and recovery of this booster, which has flown before and is being reused for this flight – a key feature of Elon Musk’s strategy for reducing the costs of commercial space flight. The rocket will be pushed to the edge of some trajectory limits in order to capture useful mission data, and will be expended upon reentry. Since SpaceX is gearing up to release their new Block 5 version of the Falcon 9, recent (and likely upcoming) missions are cycling out the old Falcon boosters to make way for the new and improved 2018 model. Won’t that be great – when we are versioning rockets as commonly as we do with automobiles?