SpaceX Completes Successful Wet Dress Rehearsal

On August 31, 2012, SpaceX completed a successful wet dress rehearsal, a launch readiness test which simulates the actual countdown of the Falcon 9 rocket. The rehearsal was in preparation for its first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, which is currently targeted for October.

After completing the sequence, SpaceX unloads the propellants and returns the vehicle to a pre-launch state.

On the morning of August 31 at Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Falcon 9 rolls from SpaceX's main hangar out to the launch pad aboard a mobile transporter erector. Photo: SpaceX

In the coming weeks, SpaceX engineers will review the data and prepare for a full static test firing, where the Falcon 9’s nine first stage engines ignite for a few seconds, with the vehicle held securely to the pad. That will mark the final major test before actual flight.

Falcon 9 gets ready to go vertical on the launch pad. This wet dress rehearsal verifies all of the ground and launch systems for Falcon 9, so the Dragon spacecraft can remain in the hangar, undergoing its own series of tests before flight. Photo: SpaceX

Once Falcon 9 is vertical, all personnel depart from the launch site and both stages are filled with RP-1 fuel and liquid oxygen, as they would be for flight. Photo: SpaceX