SpaceX will launch its Falcon 9 rocket Saturday morning at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket — which will lift off from Launch Pad 39A, the same pad Apollo 11 lifted off from in 1969 — will be headed towards the International Space Station to launch an unmanned aircraft filled with cargo and supplies.
This launch, under contract with NASA, marks the first-ever joint venture in outer space between the government and a privately-owned company. "Tomorrow's launch is a hybrid launch," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told reporters Friday. "We've got a government customer, under a commercial launch authority, commercially-developed launch vehicle, incredible amounts of science ... it's a blend."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
'This is exactly what technology should be doing'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Black women are being pushed out of the workforce en masseIN THE SPOTLIGHT Employment data shows hundreds of thousands of Black women have left the labor market over the past few months. What's behind this mass exodus?
-
Is Amazon about to take over the grocery business?Today's Big Question Expanded delivery will present a challenge to Walmart and Kroger
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beatspeed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
