Current Affairs: SpaceX announced plans to launch its Falcon 9 on December 19. It is SpaceX’s first mission since a massive explosion after liftoff destroyed the rocket and its space station cargo few months ago.
The Falcon 9 exploded on June 28, just over two minutes after launching from Cape Canaveral with its Dragon cargo ship loaded with supplies for the astronauts living in space.
The accident was a blow to the California-based company, which was the first commercial outfit to send a cargo craft to space under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.
The Falcon 9 rocket that is scheduled to fly December 19 is a new version that is 30 percent more powerful and designed to improve the controlled landing of the rocket’s first stage.
The Falcon rocket will carry 11 satellites for the US company Orbcomm into low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX’s only competitor in the commercial resupply industry is Orbital ATK, which also suffered a major setback when its Antares rocket exploded after launching from Wallops Island, Virginia in October 2014.
Orbital ATK launched its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship to the ISS, this time aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket while it upgrades the Antares, which previously used a reconditioned Ukrainian rocket engine.
