According to Florida Today, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has delivered the first stage of its second Falcon 9 medium-lift rocket to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in preparation of a flight now scheduled for the second week of September.
The launch will be the second of the Falcon 9, which debuted in early June carrying a dummy payload, and the first under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which aims to demonstrate a cargo delivery service for the international space station.
“The roughly 100-foot long, 12-foot wide booster and its nine Merlin engines arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base from Texas late last week on an oversized flatbed truck, wrapped in protective tarps.”
SpaceX is currently on the hook for three COTS flights before it can begin executing on its $1.6 billion contract to deliver cargo to the space station, but the company is trying to convince NASA to dispense with one of those by combining the objectives of the second and third demo.
