Elon Musk has officially set the next launch date of SpaceX on May 3. There will be a two-hour window on that day which will open at 1:22 p.m. ET.
The last successful Falcon 9 rocket launch and recovery of the company was on April 8. After the delivery of the payload, the rocket went down to Earth and successfully landed on a barge, an autonomous drone ship floating in the Atlantic.
SpaceX is now challenging itself by repeating the same feat under more difficult conditions. The earlier launch carried a Dragon spacecraft and delivered its payload to the International Space Station about 400 kilometers up in space.
Now, the next launch is tentatively scheduled on the early morning hours of May 3. It is scheduled to deliver a Japanese broadcast satellite into orbit about 22,000 kilometers from the earth's surface.
Although Elon Musk's rocket will try to repeat its successful feat on April 8, he will not use the same rocket that landed successfully on that date. SpaceX will use another rocket.
The April 8 rocket is still undergoing testing. It has to be re-certified for it to be used again, and the earliest this could be is in June, according to Elon Musk.
The last successful rocket landing marked the fifth time the company tried to land the Falcon 9 rocket on an autonomous barge. That rocket landed in an upright position in almost calm waters. That was remarkably different from previous landing attempts that were mostly fiery.
The mastery of drone ship landing is very vital to SpaceX. Its CEO said they are required for "high velocity missions" that would enable the carrying of payloads like satellites into higher orbits.
The ability to reuse rockets will "revolutionize access to space" since it will lower the costs considerably, according to Musk.
