NASA announced Friday that SpaceX is looking at Sunday as the day to launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory mission (DSCOVR).
The space transport service wants to follow up the launch with a landing of the Falcon 9 rocket booster on a platform in the ocean, which would be the second attempt at a booster landing in a month, according to USA Today. A successful booster landing has yet to take place, as last month's landing resulted in the rocket crashing into the "autonomous spaceport drone ship" without causing extensive damage.
NASA is working with the Air Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the DSCOVR mission, which will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Despite the lack of a successful booster landing, SpaceX released a video last week showing all three boosters from a Falcon Heavy rocket flying back to the landing pads, as well as a photo of its Dragon capsule that will be used to test an important system needed for future missions to the International Space Station, Perfect Science reported.
SpaceX is planning its "pad abort" test for the next month or two with the goal of firing SuperDraco thrusters designed for people aboard a Dragon to use to escape a failing rocket. Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, said the test will allow the company to develop safety features for full aborts all the way through ascent.
If the test is successful, SpaceX plans on using the abort thrusters to make sure Dragons landings happen on land, though Shotwell said last week that the first landings will take place on water and will be assisted by parachutes, USA Today reported. She added that the company plans on holding the pad abort test from Launch Complex 40 "in the next month or so."
"It took us quite a while to get here, but there's a lot of great technology and innovation in that pad abort vehicle," Shotwell said.
