Watch live as SpaceX launches a used Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station – Recode

Posted: June 1, 2017 at 10:52 pm

Update: Todays launch has been delayed due to lightning and is rescheduled for Saturday, June 3 at 5:07 pm ET 2:07 pm PT.

SpaceX, the interplanetary space travel company run by CEO Elon Musk, is launching another of its Falcon 9 rockets at 5:55 pm ET / 2:55 pm PT tonight from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The rocket will be hauling cargo to the International Space Station with one of its Dragon capsules. This isnt the first time this particular Dragon has been to the ISS. The same craft traveled through space in 2014 to send supplies to the International Space Station, too.

In this mission, the space travel company will try to land its Falcon 9 rocket after launch. But instead of attempting to land on a ship in the middle of the ocean, SpaceX will try to land the rocket on a landing pad in Cape Canaveral. The previous four attempts to return a Falcon 9 on land have been successful.

Reusing rockets and spacecraft is core to SpaceXs mission of bringing down the cost of space travel. Rockets are typically too damaged after launching to be used again, and building a new rocket can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Watch the launch live here:

In this particular mission, the Dragon will be ferrying nearly 6,000 pounds of cargo, which will, in part, support research happening onboard the International Space Station.

The last time SpaceX launched was only two weeks ago, when it sent a gigantic satellite, about the size of a double-decker bus, into orbit on May 15 with one of its Falcon 9 rockets. And its launch before that was only two weeks prior on May 1, when a Falcon 9 successfully landed after launching a military satellite into space. SpaceX has another rocket launch scheduled for June 15.

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Watch live as SpaceX launches a used Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station - Recode

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