After a month off, SpaceX makes a triumphant return to flight [Updated]

12:45pm Monday Update: With near perfect weather conditions for a launch, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket soared into space on Monday, delivering its Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The supply ship will rendezvous with the International Space Station later this week. Meanwhile, the Falcon 9's first stage fell back to its landing pad on the Florida coast, marking the 14th time SpaceX has successfully returned a booster to Earth.

Original post: After standing down for a month due to Air Force maintenance on the launch range along the US East Coast, SpaceX will attempt to return to flight on Monday. Provided the weather and spacecraft cooperate, the company will launch a Dragon carrying about 3 tons of cargo to the International Space Station. Launch time is set for 12:31pm ET, and there is n 80-percent chance of "go" conditions for the instantaneous launch window.

This will be SpaceX's 11th launch attempt of 2017, with the company already having flown more rockets into space this year than in any previous calendar year. It last flew on July 5, when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted the very heavy Intelsat 35e communications satellite, nearly 7 tons, to geostationary orbit. Because the Dragon spacecraft is only going to low Earth orbit, the Falcon 9 rocket flying Monday will have plenty of propellant left behind to attempt a return to Landing Zone 1, along the Florida Coast.

According to the company, this will also be the last time a "new" Dragon cargo spacecraft flies into space. Future cargo missions will be fulfilled with refurbished Dragons that SpaceX recovers after water landings in the Pacific Ocean. This change should allow the company to move into production of crew variants of the Dragon spacecraft.

While SpaceX has not been busy with launches during the last month, the Hawthorne, California-based company has been making news elsewhere—some good, some bad.

Setting expectations

Founder Elon Musk has had a tendency to over-promise in terms of schedules for his spacecraft hardware, and during the last month he has had to pull back on his Mars ambitions. Musk said in mid-June the company would not fly its "Red Dragon" mission to the surface of Mars, an innovative idea to land a large, uncrewed spacecraft on Mars. He also hinted that the initial version of a large rocket designed to transport humans to Mars, tentatively named the Interplanetary Transport System, would be smaller in its initial configuration.

On the bright side, Musk revealed this month that SpaceX is targeting November for the maiden launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket. Already, the company has test-fired the three boosters that will be combined to form the heavy lift rocket. Musk has advised caution about the launch, however, due to its experimental nature. "There's a real good chance that vehicle does not make it to orbit," he said. "We want to make sure and set expectations accordingly. I hope that it makes it far enough away from the pad that it does not cause pad damage."

Monday's planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket will take place from the same pad in Florida. And before it gets into November, SpaceX has a busy manifest to fly out, with at least six flights scheduled by November 1.

All photos for this story were provided by Trevor Mahlmann.

Listing image by Trevor Mahlmann