SpaceX Cargo Dragon CRS-2 SpX-24 International Space Station Resupply Flight

SpaceX plans its final launch for 2021, the Dragon CRS-2 SpX-24 cargo flight to the International Space Station, for 2021-12-21 at 10:06 UTC. This will complete a record 31 SpaceX launches in the year. Unusually for SpaceX these days, the first stage booster, B1069, is new and will be making its first flight. The Cargo Dragon spacecraft, C208-2, has flown once before.

Weather does not look promising at this time: the forecast is only 30% favourable for launch.

The NASA Webcast will start around twenty minutes before launch. Here is a pre-launch preview from Everyday Astronaut.

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Another launch, another success for SpaceX, closing 2021 with 31 launches, all successful. I have cued the replay in the main post to start one minute before launch. SpaceX and NASA gambled on the dodgy weather, which still violated launch constraints at the time they began fuelling the booster but, around 15 minutes before the scheduled T-0 time, cleared sufficiently to permit launch.

The landing of the first stage booster on the drone ship Just Read The Instructions marked the one hundredth successful landing of a Falcon (9 and Heavy) booster. This cargo mission will be the 30th visit of a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

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Did it again !!!