How to watch today’s SpaceX milestone Falcon 9 rocket launch

Elon Musk's SpaceX Corporation has had tremendous successes so far in making deliveries into low-Earth orbit, but their latest, now rescheduled after an aborted launch on Monday, is set to be a big milestone for the company.

"This launch is very important to the future of SpaceX. This is our toughest mission yet!" Musk told reporters during a pre-launch briefing on Sunday, according to Universe Today.

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After the Monday launch attempt was reset twice, it had to be aborted since the launch window closed before they could complete a countdown. The new launch window opens up at 5:38 p.m., Thursday, November 28th, and SpaceX will be hosting a live broadcast on their website starting at 5 p.m. Eastern Time (click here).

This launch of SpaceX's next generation Falcon 9 rocket, version 1.1, will have two phases. Phase one will be just to get the satellite into space, where it will circle around in low-Earth orbit. Phase two will be a second rocket burn to boost the satellite along an elliptical 'geostationary transfer orbit' where it will go between about 295 km to as far out as 80,000 kilometres. From there, the satellite will settle itself into an orbit roughly 36,000 kilometres above the equator, joining the ring of telecommunications satellites that circles the planet.

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This Falcon 9 mission is big news for SpaceX because it extends their reach far beyond what they've achieved so far, and thus opens up space to more companies that want to put spacecraft into orbit.

"I don’t want to tempt fate, but I think it's going to have a pretty significant impact on the world launch market and on the launch industry because our prices are the most competitive of any in the world," Musk said during the briefing.

(Photo courtesy: SpaceX)

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