SpaceX Will Attempt Another Rocket Landing Tonight

Update: The launch was delayed due to  a glitch with a radar system needed to track the rocket. According ​to SpaceX, the next opportunity for the launch is Monday Feb 9 at 6.07pm ET.

​Tonight at 6:10 pm Eastern, SpaceX is scheduled to launch NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) on its way to Lagrangian Point 1, almost a million miles away.

This launch is highly anticipated for two reasons. The first has to do with the mission concept, which was first proposed by then-Vice President Al Gore in 1998. From its perch in L1, the DSCOVR will monitor solar wind conditions, with a special eye to anticipating disruptive solar storms that might damage equipment on Earth, or in Earth orbit.

Briefing on tonight's launch. Credit: NASA/YouTube.

The satellite is also outfitted with a specialized instrument called the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), which will be able to capture minute details of our planet's atmosphere, including variations in levels of ozone, aerosols, and volcanic ash. And because L1 is located between the Earth and the Sun, it will also have a continuous view of the sunsoaked side of our planet, which is expected to produce some visually stunning new images, a la "Blue Marble."

But the other reason that this mission is particularly exciting has to do with the launch itself, which provides SpaceX with another chance to test its ambitious rocket landing maneuver.

The vast majority of rocket stages are expendable, and burn up after delivering their orbital payloads to space. But Elon Musk's has been very open about his plan to build an entirely reusable rocket launch system at SpaceX.

"If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred," Musk said in a SpaceX statement. "A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space."

On January 10, SpaceX attempted its first powered descent of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket onto a drone ship, after the vehicle successfully launched a cargo payload to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the results were explosive.

The January 10 test landing. Credit: CNN/YouTube.

"Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard," Musk tweeted at the time. "Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho."

Well, the future has arrived less than a month later, and it will be interesting to see if SpaceX can nail the landing this time around. But even if it doesn't, the launch will still be a success if it boosts the much delayed DSCOVR satellite onto its four month journey to L1. The so-called "GoreSat" mission has been a long time in the making, and it's past time it took to the skies.