SpaceX has released more details on its plans to land a portion of their rocket on a barge in the ocean.
It’s going to be attempted during the company’s next launch this Friday afternoon at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
SpaceX said they don’t give themselves very good odds of this working, just a 50 percent shot.
X-marks the spot of where they plan to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on a barge.
SpaceX actually calls it the autonomous spaceport drone ship.
The unmanned barge will be moved away from the coast and once the Dragon capsule is safely on its way to the International Space Station with cargo for NASA, the engines of the first stage will be re-lit to help land the rocket on the barge.
So why is SpaceX going through all this trouble? If they can reuse the first stage of the rocket, it could save them millions of dollars.
“That’s a game changer. That will be huge if it works the way they expect it to, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t,” said University of Central Florida space expert Dale Ketcham.
Saving that kind of money will mean reducing the cost for launches and it could mean more customers for SpaceX and that more business for the Space Coast.
If it doesn’t work, SpaceX said they have at least a dozen more launches planned for next year and fully expect to re-land and reuse a rocket in 2015.
Friday’s launch is set for 1:22 p.m. Forecasters said there is a 70 percent chance of favorable weather at launch time.