Updates: Watch NASA and SpaceX launch the IXPE space observatory from Florida

Emre Kelly, Florida Today
·1 min read

Update: Liftoff of Falcon 9 at 1 a.m. ET! NASA's IXPE spacecraft is now en route to Earth orbit, where it will study X-rays from cosmic objects like black holes. Read the full story here.

Follow live as SpaceX targets 1 a.m. ET Thursday, Dec. 9, for the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a NASA science payload.

If everything goes according to plan, the 230-foot rocket will lift off from pad 39A with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer observatory, or IXPE, which will study cosmic X-rays produced by objects like black holes and dead stars. After liftoff, Falcon 9's first stage booster will target a landing on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

See real-time updates and ask questions below:

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Updates: Watch NASA and SpaceX launch IXPE observatory from Florida