History to be made with first commercial space flight to International Space Station tomorrow...

On Saturday at 4.55 a.m (EST) a Falcon 9 rocket will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida and hopefully become the first private commercial flight to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS).

Ferrying the Dragon capsule into space, the mission to the ISS will be to deliver 1,000 pounds of non-essential cargo after passing a series of test maneuvers over the course of three days.

Watch the launch live at:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/status.html
or
http://www.spacex.com/

For those on Twitter, be sure to follow @elonmusk this week. He will be tweeting live from mission control during launch.
http://twitter.com/#!/elonmusk

SpaceX press kit:
http://www.spacex.com/downloads/COTS-2-Press-Kit-5-14-12.pdf

According to SpaceFlightNow.com:

1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT)
The weather outlook continues to be favorable for liftoff tomorrow, according to Air Force forecasters.

There remains a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions for the instantaneous launch opportunity at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).

“Diffluent flow and cold temperatures aloft coupled with a weak surface boundary over Central Florida will result in one more day of thunderstorms including a risk for severe winds and hail with all the dynamics in place,” meteorologists wrote in a forecast synposis.

“The surface boundary is forecast to move through Friday turning our winds northerly then easterly, reducing the rain and lightning threat tomorrow and Saturday. Persistent onshore flow from the east favors a chance of light rain showers, generally in the morning hours, but lightning is rare in this weather regime. In the event of a launch delay, the winds gradually become southeasterly. Southeast flow results in similar morning rain shower conditions, but the showers are typically a little heavier as conditions are more unstable.”

“The primary concern for launch day and in the event of a delay is the cumulus cloud rule.”

Scattered clouds are forecast at 2,500 feet, with light easterly winds and a temperature between 73 degrees and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Elon’s goal is to go to Mars. That’s a bit beyond the government contract stuff. He’s also doing launches for commercial customers like the RazakSat satellite he sent up a year or so ago.

Here is the SpaceX launch manifest for the next several years.

http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

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