SPACE FLIGHT:...An Early Saturday Morning Blast-Off Awaits SpaceX's Launch...At About 8:00 AM...Woodstock-Like Crowd Expected...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BOCA CHICA, Texas | At 8:00 A.M or shortly thereafter today is when SpaceX plans to launch its powerful developmental rocket ship ahead of the company's plan to help land astronauts on the moon and on Mars.

Anticipation grows as a large, "Woodstock-like" crowd is expected to witness the liftoff.

If successful, the brief, unmanned flight will take the spaceship into sub-orbit and make a landing somewhere near Hawaii in the South Pacific, according to SpaceX honcho Elon Musk.

The experimental flight is one of many crucial tests in SpaceX's development campaign to build a fully reusable rocket capable of sending some 150 tons of satellites into space.

Originally scheduled for launch last September, the flight was delayed by a government review of SpaceX's launch last April, in which the rocket ship lifted off nicely, rose to several thousand feet and then was destroyed when it began to tumble end-over-end, portions of the rocket falling mostly into the Gulf of Mexico but also to areas inland.

A related problem came after that launch pretty much destroyed the launching pad, the ship's powerful 33 engines leaving major damage and a small debris field. SpaceX has said it has incorporated a water-spray mechanism that will help keep blast-off heat down this time.

At a hearing in Washington, D.C. recently, SpaceX administrators and engineers told the government it needed fast-track approval for this launch ASAP, as worries surfaced that Chinese plans for a base on the moon could succeed before the joint NASA/SpaceX mission set to ferry American astronauts to the moon's surface in early 2025 for the first time in 53 years.

Weather reports for the Saturday morning launch suggest the liftoff will likely occur on time...

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