Forecast favorable for SpaceX launch from KSC

Showers and clouds are expected to clear enough Wednesday night to give SpaceX a good chance of launching a mystery government mission from Kennedy Space Center.

Air Force meteorologists put the weather odds at 70 percent favorable for the company's planned 8 p.m. liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a payload code named "Zuma."

Lingering cumulus and thick clouds are a potential concern during a window extending to 10 p.m.

Thursday night offers even better odds, should the launch slip a day: 90 percent "go," meteorologists say.

Less than 10 minutes after the launch, SpaceX will try to achieve its 20th landing of a Falcon booster. 

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The rocket's first stage will fly back to a Cape Canaveral Air Force Station pad a few miles south of the KSC launch site, producing a loud sonic boom near touchdown.

Northrop Grumman contracted the launch for an unspecified government customer.

SpaceX test-fired the rocket's nine Merlin 1D main engines on Saturday, about a week after an upgraded version of the engine, still under development, failed on a test stand in Texas.

More:SpaceX suffers Merlin rocket engine failure in Texas; not expected to impact launches

The company is investigating the "Block V" engine failure and said it would not impact current missions using Block IV engines.

A successful launch would be SpaceX's 17th of 2017 — one more than rival United Launch Alliance has performed in any calendar year. 

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