SpaceX is set to launch its Dragon spacecraft on Monday, carrying 4,300 pounds of supplies destined for the International Space Station, and will attempt to make a historic landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket.
While this will mark SpaceX's sixth delivery mission to NASA, it will be its third attempt to soft-land a stage of a rocket, a test that will help in moving towards reusable rockets and reducing costs of space missions.
The Dragon space shuttle will take off on Falcon 9 at 4:33 pm US time (7.35 pm in UK and 2.00 am (14 April) in India) on Monday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Ten minutes after lift-off, SpaceX will attempt to land a part of the Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean platform, also called as "autonomous spaceport drone ship", in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida's coast.
SpaceX had made a similar attempt in January, but was unsuccessful as the first-stage of the rocket made a "hard-landing" and went up in flames.
It made a second attempt in February, but due to bad weather the rocket stage landed in the ocean.
Weather forecasts for Monday predict 60% chances of favourable weather.
You can watch the rocket launch and rocket-landing attempt live on NASA TV and Space.com.
You can also keep track of live updates through the Twitter accounts of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX and NASA.
Just Read the Instructions on location & ready for tomorrow's 1st stage landing attempt. http://t.co/tdni53IviI pic.twitter.com/GYeCp0DDc8
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 13, 2015
Next: A 3:30pm ET @ISS_CASIS briefing on research @SpaceX launches to @Space_Station Monday: http://t.co/KX5g7yYnYG pic.twitter.com/DnbNSrntNX — NASA (@NASA) April 12, 2015
