SpaceX ditches landing legs on next Falcon 9 flight

SpaceX's next resupply mission to the International Space Station is set for takeoff as soon as Saturday after a rapid rebound from the company's last flight from Cape Canaveral, but the company has abandoned a plan to use the launch as another chance to practice rocket recovery procedures.

File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft inside SpaceX's hangar at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX Liftoff of a 208-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for Saturday at 2:16 a.m. EDT (0616 GMT), a day later than previously planned to accommodate flight preparations after SpaceX's Sept. 7 launch of the AsiaSat 6 commercial communications satellite.

If ground crews pull it off, it will bust SpaceX's record turnaround time between Falcon 9 missions as the launch company ramps up its mission cadence to accomplish a jam-packed manifest.

Before now, the fastest turnaround between SpaceX launches was 22 days between a pair of commercial Falcon 9 flights from Cape Canaveral on July 14 and Aug. 5.

In a change of plans, the Falcon 9 booster stage set to launch Saturday will not carry landing legs, according to Hannah Post, a SpaceX spokesperson. She said SpaceX does not plan to attempt a water landing of the first stage after its job during launch is completed.

SpaceX initially planned to program the rocket's first stage to fly back to Earth after completing its work to boost the Dragon spacecraft off the launch pad, but engineers swapped out the Falcon 9 booster with a first stage originally assigned to another flight, officials said.

The reason for the changeout was not disclosed.

SpaceX has fitted two Falcon 9 rockets this year with landing legs.

During liftoff, the carbon fiber-aluminum honeycomb legs are left folded against the rocket's first stage. Once the booster finishes its main job in the launch sequence, the stage falls away and uses leftover propellant to re-ignite its engines for a controlled descent back to Earth. Moments before reaching the ground, the legs extend down and outward.

The launches with landing legs earlier this year were exercises, culminating with splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles from Cape Canaveral.

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SpaceX ditches landing legs on next Falcon 9 flight