SpaceX To Attempt Another Rocket Landing

[Webster]

....SpaceX must apparently believe that the third time really is the charm....

(NBC News) SpaceX stands ready to launch a much-needed load of supplies to the International Space Station this weekend on the heels of a failed supply run by Russia. The company will also try again to pull off a feat it's failed at twice beore: land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating ocean platform.

The weather forecast is 90 percent favorable for the scheduled 10:21 a.m. EDT Sunday launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, mission officials said in a Friday afternoon briefing.

The Falcon 9 rocket will carry a Dragon spacecraft loaded with more than 4,000 pounds of food, equipment, experiments and other supplies destined for the ISS, including a new docking port, or parking place, for future commercial crew capsules.

This shipment is especially critical because the space station has lost two deliveries since fall. A Russian supply ship spun out of control shortly after liftoff in April and burned up on re-entry with all its contents. In October, an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo carrier was destroyed in a Virginia launch explosion.

Minutes after Sunday's liftoff, SpaceX will make another attempt to vertically land the Falcon 9's discarded first-stage booster on an ocean platform off the north Florida coast. Two of the previous efforts — aimed at demonstrating rocket reusability — ended in flames. SpaceX said it has pinpointed and fixed the cause of those failures: lack of hydraulic fluid for the stabilizing "grid fins" in the first attempt in January, and a non-responsive throttle valve in a try in April.

Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX vice president of mission assurance, said innovative companies learn from their mistakes. "This is an experimental trial to some extent," he said. "You look at the data, you evaluate this and then you make corrections, and that's ultimately how you succeed."

-Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/spacex-hopes-third-times-charm-rocket-landing-attempt-n382836