Watch SpaceX launch the same Falcon 9 rocket for the fifth time

Update March 18th, 10:35AM ET: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully took off on time and deployed all 60 satellites into their intended orbit. However, the rocket failed to land as intended on the company’s drone ship in the Atlantic, so there won’t be a sixth launch of this vehicle. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also confirmed that one of the Falcon 9’s engines shut down early on the climb to space and that the company will be doing a thorough investigation into what happened before the next flight. SpaceX was able to catch both halves of the rocket’s nosecone following the launch — the first time two pieces were caught on a single mission.

Original Story: As the rest of the world slowly grinds to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic, the US launch industry is still sending rockets into space, with another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set to take off from Florida on Wednesday morning. SpaceX is launching its latest batch of 60 satellites for its Starlink constellation, aimed at beaming internet coverage down to Earth. And the company is using a very special Falcon 9 rocket for the job: a vehicle that’s been to space and back four times before. SpaceX originally tried to launch this mission on Sunday, but it was forced to postpone.

The countdown got all the way to T-0, but the rocket aborted just before fulling igniting its engines and taking off. If the vehicle launches successfully today, the rocket will become the first of SpaceX’s fleet to go to space for a fifth time. And it’s possible it could become the first to land for a fifth time, too. SpaceX is aiming to land the Falcon 9 rocket on one of its drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean following the launch, which would be the 51st landing of a Falcon 9 core for the company.

In fact, SpaceX is trying to recover as much of this rocket as possible post-takeoff. Two of SpaceX’s boats equipped with giant nets will attempt to catch the rocket’s nose cone — the bulbous structure on top of the Falcon 9 that shields the satellites during the climb to space. The nose cone, or payload fairing, breaks in two once the rocket is in space and each half falls to Earth, usually hitting the ocean and going unrecovered. But SpaceX has been trying periodically to catch these pieces following launches in order to use them again on future flights.

All in all, it’s an ambitious launch for SpaceX that could contain a lot of firsts for the company. If each piece of hardware lands or is caught as planned, it would be the first time SpaceX has successfully recovered that many pieces of a rocket following a launch. So far, SpaceX has been able to land its Falcon 9 and catch one half of the fairing following a flight; it hasn’t been able to catch both halves on one mission yet.