Watch Live: SpaceX Launches Rocket to International Space Station

If everything goes to plan, SpaceX will be launching a rocket bound for the International Space Station at 3:25 p.m. ET on Friday — and you can watch live on Mashable. It will be the most important thing SpaceX has accomplished to date, CEO Elon Musk tells Mashable, as long as he can pull it off.

Musk has already made two of 12 slated cargo deliveries to the ISS as part of his $1.6 billion contract with NASA, and that is this launch’s primary goal. But Musk has been working behind the curtain to test out the reusability of this rocket. If things go as planned on Friday, he will attempt something he’s never tried before. When the Dragon capsule is safely in orbit and well on its way to the space station, the first stage will separate and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. As the helium-filled rocket slows, it will extend four 25-foot-long landing legs and use its thrusters to briefly hover over the Atlantic Ocean before plopping down ever so gently onto the surface. Read more...