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SpaceX is ready for liftoff! When you can watch the next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket

If all goes according to plan for Block 5, SpaceX could launch more missions with fewer rockets, all while having to oversee less work in between.
Credit: Elon Musk via Instagram
The first Block 5 Falcon 9 booster rolls out to Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A on Thursday, May 3, 2018.

UPDATE: The launch was scrubbed at T-minus 58 seconds. The next window for a launch starts at 4:14 p.m. Friday.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- SpaceX's launch of a next-generation Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center on Thursday will mark the beginning of the end for the rocket – but it will also pave the way for the maverick company's reusability ambitions and, ultimately, its quest to touch the surface of Mars.

When the first Falcon 9 Block 5 takes flight from pad 39A at 4:12 p.m., it will take with it enhancements gleaned from two years of launching, landing and re-launching rockets. The company hopes those upgrades mean less refurbishment, shorter turnaround times between launches and a more densely packed manifest.

“We’re trying to summarize all of these lessons learned into a booster that then is able to fly and be recovered and fly again multiple times without a lot of refurbishment,” Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, told FLORIDA TODAY in April. “It’s a reliability upgrade that combines reliability and reusability.”

Air Force weather forecasters expect 80 percent "go" conditions for the launch of Bangladesh's Bangabandhu-1 communications satellite, citing the presence of thick clouds as the only concern. A delay to Friday would see a drop to 60 percent favorable for the same reason.

More: SpaceX: Expect a 'couple more' Falcon Heavy launches this year

Photos: SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy rocket, sticks 2 landings

Stationed a couple hundred miles off Florida's east coast in the Atlantic Ocean, the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship will play host to the booster's landing attempt shortly after liftoff, bringing back the hardware that could fly more 10 times or more with light refurbishment. For comparison, older Block 4 versions flew a maximum of two missions before retirement.

Some notable upgrades for Block 5 include:

--An enhanced heat shield at the base to better survive re-entry, which gives the rocket more reusability capabilities.

--A different interstage, or segment that sits between the first and second stages, that now sports an unpainted, black look.

--Retractable black landing legs, compared to the Block 4's white ones.

--More thrust produced by the rocket's nine Merlin main engines.

If all goes according to plan for Block 5, SpaceX could launch more missions with fewer rockets, all while having to oversee less work in between. Company CEO Elon Musk has in the past likened the efforts to that of aircraft, noting that Boeing does not build a brand new 747 for every flight but instead relies on checkups and routine maintenance over decades of service.

Those improvements, SpaceX believes, will lead to more robust profit margins and help the already-prominent rocket gain an even deeper foothold in the launch services industry.

Block 5, however, will be the final version of the workhorse Falcon 9 family, now the most popular rocket in the world and priced at about $60 million per launch. SpaceX has its eye on bigger ambitions: The 350-foot-tall Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR, which will help the company reach the red planet and was recently approved for production at the Port of Los Angeles.

Credit: SpaceX
Concept image of the spaceship portion of SpaceX's "Big Falcon Rocket," or BFR, blasting off from the surface of Mars.

Falcon 9 and its three-core sibling, Falcon Heavy, will fill the gap and help fund research and development until BFR's debut.

On board for Thursday's mission: Bangabandhu-1, Bangladesh's first-ever geostationary communications satellite. The 8,000-pound spacecraft is expected to spend up to 15 years in orbit serving countries ranging from Turkmenistan to the west and the Philippines to the east, giving the Bangladesh Communications Satellite Company a digital foothold in the region.

"Departing for Florida to witness historic Bangabandhu Satellite-1 launching," Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for the country's Information and Communication Technology Division, said via Twitter on Monday. "Please keep us in your prayers so that we can safely launch our first satellite of Bangladesh."

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