WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The launch of the Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled for 20:43 GMT, April 8, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The robotic spacecraft will be launched using the Falcon 9 carrier rocket.
In June 2015, A Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon cargo ship carrying supplies to the ISS exploded 3 minutes after it had been launched from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX has since modified the Falcon 9 rocket and the Friday launch, which is the first Dragon mission since last year’s accident, will be carried out using the upgraded model.
SpaceX will also try to get the first stage of the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket to land on a drone ship.
In December 2015, SpaceX succeeded in making Falcon’s reusable first stage land upright about 6 miles from where it was launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rest of the company’s attempts to have rocket boosters land on a drone ship have failed.
