Following its recent successful landing on a drone ship, SpaceX is setting itself up for failure again, by attempting a “hot and fast” landing later tonight.
Just like before, SpaceX will be trying to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The last mission was delivering a payload to the ISS, a couple hundred kilometers above the Earth. This time, the payload is a Japanese satellite being delivered 36,000 km from the planet.
That will leave the first stage with far less fuel to slow its descent, leading to a landing that Elon Musk is describing as “hot and fast.” In other words, we’re probably going to see a spectacular crash. The launch window opens at 1.21AM, and lasts for two hours.
