Ground crews plan to load the final cargo into SpaceX’s Dragon supply
ship Saturday after the capsule’s Falcon 9 rocket booster briefly fired
up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral for a flight readiness check.
The Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine Merlin 1D first stage engines at
4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) Friday as hold-down clamps kept the the
208-foot-tall booster firmly on the ground at Cape Canaveral’s Complex
40 launch pad.
The engines throttled up to full power, then shut down a few seconds
later. The prelaunch engine firing — called a static fire by SpaceX — is
the company’s last major test before clearing the rocket for final
countdown preparations.
“I heard it was very successful — full-duration — and that clears the
next coming days up to launch on Sunday morning,” said Hans
Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of mission assurance and launch
chief engineer.
Fresh food and time-sensitive experiments will go into the capsule Saturday.
Liftoff is timed for Sunday at 10:21:12 a.m. Swedish time: 16.10.
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