For the first time, SpaceX will attempt to reuse one of the Falcon 9 rockets it has successfully launched and landed — a move that, if successful, could drastically reduce the cost of getting to space.
Elon Musk’s private space company is set to launch a satellite for Luxembourg-based communications company SES at 6:27 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch is particularly special since it could help usher in a new era of launches at a reduced price.
“If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred,” said Musk on the SpaceX website.
SpaceX currently lists the cost of a launch at $62 million, though it’s unclear how much SES is paying for Thursday’s pioneering launch — customers have non-disclosure agreements with SpaceX, and the price tag differs according to each customer’s needs.
The company’s chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, has previously discussed how “flight proven” rockets could potentially give customers a 30 percent discount in the future.
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The first “flight proven” booster to go back to space is making the trip almost one year after it was used to launch a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station last April.
What is being recycled is actually just the 14-story main body of the rocket, which separates from the top part of the rocket and then barrels back to Earth, ideally making a control landing on a drone ship parked off the coast of Florida.
SpaceX will try to land this booster for a second time, and in the future, continue the cycle of launch, land, repeat.
The company is getting pretty good at returning rockets to Earth: After 13 attempts in recent years, the company has stuck eight of them.
The first one, which returned to land in December 2015, won’t ever be going back to space, though. It has special status and is on display at the company’s Hawthorne, California headquarters.
SpaceX has otherwise conducted the bulk of its rocket landings at sea, something Musk has said is necessary for high-velocity missions.
Musk, of course, isn’t the only one interested in recycling rockets. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has also been keeping a lower profile, launching and landing his New Shepard rocket at least five times as the company prepares for a future goal of taking tourists to space.
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