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Watch high-speed footage of past SpaceX launches
If you didn't get the chance to watch previous SpaceX missions blast off, this video can bring you up to speed. It shows what the private space corporation has been up to these past few months, including the engine burn and launch of the May mission that carried Japanese communications satellite JCSAT-14 to orbit. That rocket's first stage landed on a drone ship even if the company didn't expect to succeed, because it came back from a particularly high orbit that made things difficult. SpaceX recently took out the first stage from that trip for a test fire, and its booster burned for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Watch SpaceX's latest attempt at landing a reusable rocket
Tonight we could possibly see Elon Musk's dream of landing a reusable rocket on a hard surface come true. The test flight for the Falcon 9 is scheduled for 8:29 PM and the live-stream (embedded below, and also available on YouTube) is supposed to kick off at 8:05 PM from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Remember, last time SpaceX tested one of its rockets it failed pretty spectacularly, exploding right after it launched.
SpaceX will try to launch and land a rocket Monday night
SpaceX has been understandably quiet since its last rocket exploded right after launch, but it's hoping to make up for that failure in style. It's planning to not only launch a Falcon 9 rocket on December 21st at 8:29PM ET, but attempt its first-ever ground landing with that rocket -- no doubt in hopes of countering Blue Origin's landing from a few weeks ago. Even if the touchdown fails, it'll still be an important launch as ORBCOMM gets 11 communications satellites into orbit. Tune in to the live stream below (coverage should start at 8:05PM) and you'll see whether or not SpaceX has better success on terra firma than it did at sea.Update (12/21): You can watch the live stream of the launch attempt right here.[Image credit: SpaceX Photos, Flickr]
