{"id":12815,"date":"2019-11-26T17:09:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T09:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-test-fires-falcon-9-rocket-for-next-space-station-cargo-launch\/"},"modified":"2019-11-26T17:09:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T09:09:18","slug":"spacex-test-fires-falcon-9-rocket-for-next-space-station-cargo-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-test-fires-falcon-9-rocket-for-next-space-station-cargo-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 rocket for next space station cargo launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday at pad 40. Credit: Steven Young\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Falcon 9 booster fresh from SpaceX\u2019s factory briefly fired its nine Merlin main engines Tuesday on a Cape Canaveral launch pad, passing a key test before liftoff Dec. 4 with a Dragon supply ship heading for the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s launch team presided over a mock countdown Tuesday afternoon, during which the Falcon 9 rocket was filled with liquid propellants as if it was real launch day.<\/p>\n

The countdown rehearsal culminated in the ignition of the Falcon 9\u2019s main engines at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) Tuesday. Hold-down restraints kept the Falcon 9 firmly on the ground at Cape Canaveral\u2019s Complex 40 launch pad.<\/p>\n

After several seconds, the Merlin engines shut down as a plume of steam and smoke appeared above pad 40. SpaceX tweeted later Tuesday evening to confirm the hold-down test-firing, which is a customary milestone in the company\u2019s launch campaigns.<\/p>\n

SpaceX will lower the Falcon 9 rocket horizontal and roll it back inside a hangar at the southern perimeter of pad 40 later this week. Workers inside the hangar will mate a Dragon cargo capsule to the rocket and prepare to return the fully-assembled launcher to the pad ahead of next week\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

The launch attempt Dec. 4 is scheduled for 12:51 p.m. EST (1751 GMT), roughly the moment that Earth\u2019s rotation brings the launch pad underneath the space station\u2019s orbital track. It will mark SpaceX\u2019s 12th launch of the year.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9\u2019s first stage \u2014 making its first launch next week \u2014 is expected to attempt a landing on SpaceX\u2019s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean for refurbishment ahead of a future flight.<\/p>\n

The Dragon supply ship will deliver several tons of equipment to the station, including more than a ton of specimens and hardware for scientific experiments, such as an investigation into flame behavior in microgravity, and 40 mice scientists are launching for a study of muscular degradation during spaceflight.<\/p>\n

Assuming an on-time launch Dec. 4, the logistics mission will arrive at the station Dec. 7 and return to Earth with cargo in early January for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

The cargo mission will be the SpaceX\u2019s 19th Dragon resupply flight since the company began operational deliveries to the station in October 2012.<\/p>\n

The Dragon spacecraft set to launch Dec. 4 previously flew two times to the space station on resupply missions in September 2014 and June 2017, according to SpaceX.<\/p>\n

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The Dragon spacecraft set to launch Dec. 4 is seen here on a previous visit to the space station. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch and rendezvous of SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft next week is not the only major activity planned aboard the space station in the coming days.<\/p>\n

The Russian Progress MS-12 cargo freighter is scheduled to undock from the station\u2019s Pirs module Friday to head for a destructive re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Dec. 2, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA crewmate Drew Morgan will head out of the station\u2019s airlock on the third in a series of spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion particle physics experiment searching for signs of antimatter and dark matter.<\/p>\n

Russian teams at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan are readying a Soyuz booster to launch the Progress MS-13 supply ship Dec. 6 at 4:34 a.m. EST (0934 GMT). That cargo mission is scheduled to arrive at the station Dec. 8, one day after the anticipated rendezvous of SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo craft.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday at pad 40. Credit: Steven Young\/Spaceflight Now A Falcon 9 booster fresh from SpaceX\u2019s factory briefly fired its nine Merlin main engines Tuesday on a Cape Canaveral launch pad, passing a key test before liftoff Dec. 4 with a Dragon supply ship heading for the International Space Station. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1736,1395,2344,479,717,1602,25,316],"class_list":["post-12815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-complex-40","tag-dragon","tag-expedition-61","tag-falcon-9","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss-cargo","tag-launch","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}