Today's most important drone in the world

[dixter]

Right

 

[African wildlife]

Another successful Falcon 9 landing earlier today - and another hopefully tomorrow. But it wasn't always this straightforward.

 

[African wildlife]

SN10 is hopefully going to launch today and the weather is looking good. If you're the SpaceX drone pilot, we expect great footage as usual. You're obviously good at your job.

Coverage starts at sunrise (12.00 noon UTC or thereabouts) here:

Official feed beginning at T-5 minutes on SpaceX.com.

Will it land in one piece? I thought it was likely with SN9 and I was sadly wrong. My colleagues and I are all expecting a good landing later today - even if it's just the icing on the cake, as it's the whole test flight which is important. Elon gives it a 60% chance. They're now planning to reignite all three Raptor engines - rather than just two as before - then turning one off it all three are working.

 

[African wildlife]

Pad is now clear. Only the drone and Zeus are now allowed within the exclusion zone. It's possible that the launch could happen very soon. Think 9.55am local or 15.55pm UTC - although that's the absolute earliest time. They look to be well ahead of the usual schedule, so they might be targeting a morning launch.

 

[African wildlife]

Recondenser is on, so 30+ minutes to launch. Hopefully.
Go SN10!