Space Coast's next launch – and landing – of SpaceX Falcon 9 delayed

The planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with supplies destined for the International Space Station has been pushed back to the last day of the month, NASA confirmed Friday.

Teams were targeting early next Friday, April 26, for liftoff from Launch Complex 40 with an uncrewed Dragon spacecraft, but NASA opted to push the mission back to 4:22 a.m. Tuesday, April 30. Launches to the ISS require instantaneous windows, so it must launch at that time or be delayed to another day.

Space Coast residents will get an early wake-up call that morning, too, when the rocket's 156-foot-tall first stage returns to land at the Cape's Landing Zone 1 and generate its signature triple sonic booms along the way. The booms are generally harmless to humans and infrastructure.

Packed into dragon and its "trunk" will be thousands of pounds of science experiments and supplies for the crew of the ISS. When it departs the station about a month later, it will return with scientific results and waste no longer needed on the station.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.