Stunning photos of SpaceX's rocket prepping for today's launch
On Sunday at 1:42 pm ET, SpaceX is scheduled to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Click here to watch it live.
Tucked away inside the cone of the rocket's head is precious cargo: the Jason-3 satellite, which is designed to measure ocean height across the globe and track sea level rise.
Here you can see the cone on the left as SpaceX rolled its rocket from the hangar toward the launch pad late last week:
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket stands 224 feet tall - about 14 stories - with a reusable first stage, which SpaceX plans to attempt to land on a drone ship located off shore in the Pacific, 186 miles south of the launch site, shortly after the launch on Sunday.Take note of the human on the lower right in the image below for a sense of how big this rocket really is:
During ascent, the grid fins stay tucked parallel to the side of the rocket, as shown below. It's only after the rocket starts to fall back to Earth that the fins fold outward:
SpaceX on Flickr
SpaceX on Flickr
The launch is scheduled to take place during a 30-second window starting at 1:42 pm ET on Sunday.
SpaceX on Flickr
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