An Italian astronaut in space will finally wake up and smell the espresso — not the caffeine-challenged instant coffee she has been forced to drink.
The SpaceX supply ship is poised for liftoff Monday afternoon with an authentic espresso machine from Italy — along with other supplies — bound for the International Space Station, or ISS, 260 miles above Earth.
The experimental, NASA-approved “ISSpresso” machine — built to pump the dark elixir craved by the globe-circling Samantha Cristoforetti in zero gravity — is a joint venture between engineering company Argotec in Turin and the Italian Space Agency. Italian coffee powerhouse Lavazza also is on board.
The spacewoman, who arrived at the ISS in November, hoped to get the machine in January, but it has been delayed since a shipment was lost in an explosion. She has had to drink instant coffee while waiting.
SpaceX, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is set to launch the 208-foot Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule at 4:33 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
There is a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather for the launch, according to forecasters.
Once Dragon is released for the two-day trip to the $100 billion ISS, officials hope Falcon 9’s first stage will turn around, fire engines to control its descent and deploy landing legs to touch down on a barge about 200 miles off the coast of Jacksonville.
Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of SpaceX, said the odds of a successful landing are 75 or 80 percent. The two previous attempts to land vertically on a barge failed.
During an attempt in January, the rocket crashed into a platform when it ran out of hydraulic fluid for its steering fins. In February, high seas canceled an attempt — but the rocket ran through its landing sequence and broke apart after a brief hover.
Ocean landings would allow the company to refurbish and refly its boosters.
SpaceX — one of two companies NASA hired to fly cargo to the ISS after the space shuttles were retired — also is working on a passenger version of Dragon.
The SpaceX launch — its seventh ISS supply run since 2012 — may be watched on NASA TV beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST.
With Post Wire Services