Private spacecraft ready to go

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Private spacecraft ready to go

May 19th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is all fueled up and ready to go for Saturday’s scheduled launch of the first commercial spacecraft bound for the International Space Station.

The unmanned rocket is due to blast off from a pad here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:55 a.m. ET. If all goes well, Dragon will be in the vicinity of the space station for a series of maneuvers on Monday, leading to a hookup a day later.

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“This is actually a difficult launch from the perspective of the launch window,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters during a briefing Friday. “We have a near-instantaneous launch window, so if by 4:55 and a couple of seconds we haven’t lifted off, we will have to scrub.”

The narrow liftoff opportunity is necessary for Dragon to catch up to the space station in orbit without expending an excess of fuel.

Falcon 9’s tanks were loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel a few hours before launch. The flight will be the third for a Falcon 9 and the second for a Dragon. [Photos: SpaceX Poised for Historic Launch]

“If successful, there’s no question this is a historic flight,” Shotwell said.

The mission could represent the final test flight before Dragon begins delivering cargo to the space station, helping to fill the gap left by the retired space shuttles. SpaceX is being partially funded by NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, aimed at outsourcing travel to low-Earth orbit to the private spaceflight industry.

Graphic: How SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft works

The high-stakes Dragon mission is a complex one, with the task of rendezvousing and docking in space something previously accomplished only by government-built spacecraft.

“The energy levels involved, the precision that is required to get thousands of parts to all work perfectly together to achieve orbit and berthing with the space station, is extremely complex,” Alan Lindemoyer, NASA’s manager for the COTS and Commercial Crew Development programs. “This could be the last milestone in our agreement to complete this demonstration phase.”

If Dragon does not successfully complete all its tests during this mission, another demonstration flight would be scheduled before SpaceX begins resupply operations in earnest. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly 12 supply-delivery missions to the space station, and the company hopes to eventually carry crew as well.

For this demonstration mission, the capsule is loaded with food, supplies and science experiments for the station.

This report was updated by msnbc.com.

You can follow Space.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.