Watch Live: SpaceX takes Budweiser on Next Step to Be First Beer on Mars

update: The launch has been postponed until Friday at 8:46 a.m. PST. Live Stream will start at 7:30 a.m. PST.

SpaceX will launch another of its highly successful Falcon 9 rockets Wednesday beginning a mission that will re-supply the International Space Station and take Budweiser one step closer to becoming the first beer on Mars.

Budweiser is upholding its commitment to be the first beer on Mars by confirming upcoming experiments on the International Space Station with plans to send and study barley – one of its key ingredients – into space in early December. The reason? Earlier this year at the South by Southwest conference, Budweiser announced its goal to be the first beer on Mars – offering a colonized red planet the same enjoyments provided here on earth, including fresh beer! And while socializing on Mars might be in the near-distant future, Budweiser is taking steps now to better understand how its ingredients react in microgravity environments so that when we get to Mars, Budweiser will be there.

To kick-start its research on microgravity beer, Budweiser is partnering with experts in the field, including CASIS* who manages the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory, and Space Tango, a payload development company that operates two commercial research facilities within the National Lab. Together the group, along with Budweiser’s innovation team, will initiate two barley experiments via SpaceX’s upcoming cargo supply mission, scheduled to launch on December 13 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Once on the International Space Station, Budweiser’s barley will stay in orbit for approximately one month before coming down to be analyzed.

SpaceX is targeting launch of the Commercial Resupply Services 13 (CRS-13) mission from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force station in Florida for 8:46 a.m. PST, or 16:46 UTC, on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, with a backup launch opportunity on Wednesday, December 13 at 9:24 a.m. PST, or 16:24 UTC.

This mission marks the first time SpaceX is flying both a flight-proven Falcon 9 and a flight-proven Dragon spacecraft. Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported the CRS-11 mission in June 2017 and the Dragon spacecraft previously supported the CRS-6 mission in April 2015.

Dragon will deliver about 4,800 pounds of cargo and material to support science investigations aboard the space station. After about one month attached to the space station, Dragon will return with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

“Budweiser is always pushing the boundaries of innovation and we are inspired by the collective American Dream to get to Mars,” said Ricardo Marques, vice president, Budweiser. “We are excited to begin our research to brew beer for the red planet.”

Budweiser’s innovation team selected barley, one of its core ingredients, to be the focus of the first two experiments in space. Malting barley is a process that results in the high-quality malt used in the Budweiser enjoyed today and the research on the International Space Station will unveil how the barley seeds react in a unique microgravity environment. One of the experiments will focus on barley seed exposure with the second testing barley germination. Not only will the research offer insights on steps to creating beer on the Red Planet, but it could also provide valuable information on the production of barley and the larger agricultural community here on earth.

Scheduled to launch on Monday, December 12, twenty Budweiser barley seeds will be sent to the International Space Station, packaged in two Space Tango CubeLabs™ on SpaceX’s CRS-13 mission. The seedlings will be in orbit for approximately 30 days, before being brought back down to earth for Budweiser’s innovation team to analyze – setting the foundation and blueprint for Budweiser’s next move in brewing the beer of the future.