Space Fizz

Photos of Dragon and Falcon 9 assembled at the Cape earlier this week fueld specualtion of an impending launch in the very near future.  Since SpaceX pushed back the Feburary 7th launch date, they have yet to specify a new launch timeline.  The blogosphere is ripe with speculation.  Many have cited April 30th, yet there is no official substantiation to confirm this date.

Earlier today this photo was posted on hobbyspace.com of Dragon and Falcon 9 vertical on pad 40.  The photo is from a webcam image at the Cape.  A few hours later Elon Musk tweeted the same photo from his personal twitter account.  With Falcon 9 and Dragon, assembled and conducting dress-rehearsal testing on the pad, a launch my be much sooner than the end of April.  Amid claims from "anonymous" sources, and wild anticipation of the first civilian rocket launch to the ISS, many are eagerly watching this one unfold.

Photo Credit: HobbySpace.com

On the weekend Elon Musk posted this photo on his personal twitter feed with the tweet "Dragon spaceship and Falcon 9 rocket just completed final assembly at Cape Canaveral http://pic.twitter  .com/4GrSr3VU"  This begs the question, when is the launch date?

The original launch was sheduled for February 7th, but a January 16 press release delayed blast-off until "later this year."  Publicly, no official date has been set for the new Dragon/Falcon9 launch.  Elon Musk tweeted a response to the date question with, "if all goes well, be the first commercial spaceship to dock with the Space Station. T zero ~ end of April."  

Yet with photos of completed rockets, one can only wonder if we'll be seeing the Merlin engines lit prior to the end of April.  With SpaceX and his other ventures, Musk certainly has developed a flavour for surprise and apprehension when it comes to announcements.  More importantly, the man loves to impress the public.  All things considered, this writer is quite confident that SpaceX will be putting Dragon in orbit sooner rather than later - certainly before the end of April.

Photo courtesy of @ElonMusk on Twitter.