May 05--One month after landing its first-stage rocket booster on a drone ship, SpaceX is set to launch a commercial communications satellite late Thursday night.
The launch is scheduled for 10:21 p.m. PST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and video of the event will be streamed live. Weather conditions pushed the launch from Wednesday to Thursday.
If all goes as planned, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will carry the JCSAT-14 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit.
The satellite, operated by the Japanese communications company SKY Perfect JSAT Corp., is meant to replace another of the firm's satellites and provide coverage to Asia, Oceania, Russia and the Pacific Islands.
The satellite will deploy about 32 minutes after liftoff.
The Hawthorne company, whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., will also try to repeat the successful landing of its first-stage rocket booster on a drone ship moored in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the Florida coast.
However, SpaceX is already predicting that it won't make this landing. Since the satellite will be delivered to a high orbit, the first-stage booster will encounter high velocities and re-entry heat, the company said.
This will be SpaceX's fourth launch of the year.
In April, SpaceX landed its Falcon 9 first-stage booster on a drone ship for the first time. The feat gave more credence to Chief Executive Elon Musk's plans to reduce launch costs by utilizing reusable rockets, setting up the company to potentially dominate the launch market.
