Elon Musk's SpaceX is off to a busy start in 2015. The company performed its first deep space mission in February, secured $1 billion in funding from Google for its satellite internet project, and has made multiple attempts at landing the first ever reusable rocket — all of which ended in spectacularly calamitous fashion.
Today, however, will be just another job for the private space company, as one of its 224-foot Falcon 9 rockets will put Turkmenistan's first satellite-based telecommunications system into orbit 22,000 miles above Earth. There will be no attempt to land the rocket's first stage and no trip to the International Space Station. Mondays, right?
Rocket moving to the pad tonight in advance of tomorrow's launch attempt. 6:14pm ET window opens. Weather 60% go. pic.twitter.com/6k28TJz7Gl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2015
Turkmenistan currently rents satellite communication capacity from Russia, so the launch is an important step for the Central Asian country. The 9,000-pound satellite will give the country the ability to offer access to independent and secure phone, television, and internet services.
Though SpaceX performed a trouble-free static fire test of the engine this weekend, weather could still delay the launch. Right now the forecast is only 60 percent favorable in Cape Canaveral, and tomorrow's looks even worse. There will be a healthy 90-minute window for the launch attempt, however. If all goes well, the Falcon 9 will lift off at 6:14PM ET.