South African technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has been in the news a lot in recent months – and for good reason. Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX is one of the few that can send privately-owned rockets into space, and it will do so again later today (Tuesday).

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will be blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at around 1pm South Africa time, but what makes this launch special is that it will also attempt to land rocket on a large barge, which the company calls an “autonomous spaceport drone ship”, for the first time  ever.

The purpose of the launch is actually two-fold: the rocket will carry the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station to collect and deliver supplies, and the rocket will attempt to land of the barge. Traditionally, rockets simply fall back to earth after its one-time use.

“While most rockets are designed to burn up on re-entry, SpaceX rockets are designed not only to withstand re-entry, but also to return to the launch pad for a vertical landing. Following the commercial model, a rapidly reusable space launch vehicle could reduce the cost of reaching Earth orbit by a hundredfold,” SpaceX explained.

There will be a live video feed of the launch, which can be viewed below:

[Image – SpaceX]