Wednesday’s Stacked SpaceX Launch Is Sending Groundbreaking Science to the Moon and Beyond

Should Wednesday’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center proceed as planned, it’s gonna be carrying a buttload of science with it. The rocket will be carrying not one, not two, but three important payloads, including a satellite set to orbit the Moon, a privately operated lunar lander, and a spacecraft that could pave the way for asteroid mining. It’s also launching an unidentified 16U satellite, managed by Exolaunch, that’ll park itself in geostationary Earth orbit. While the mission’s launch window opens on February 26, with blastoff ideally occurring at 7:17 p.m. ET, these types of things can get delayed in a hurry if conditions aren’t optimal. NASA will be livestreaming the launch on its website. Alternately, you can watch it at the livestreams below, courtesy of NASA Spaceflight. After decades of largely being ignored, the Moon has become an object of increased fascination, and two items on the manifest could provide data that contributes to the goal of b ... Read full article.