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| SpaceX's Dragon. Nasa.gov |
Remember the last post about SpaceX? Well they are at it again!
This time, SpaceX has propelled supplies to International space station on saturday.More so is that they used a verssel that has flown before.
The refurbished Dragon cargo capsule propeled into space annexed to a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:07 pm (2107 GMT) from Cape
Canaveral, Florida.
With a countdown made by NASA spokesman Mike Curie, the rocket blazed a steady vertical path into the clouds.
The last time this particular
spaceship(Dragon) flew to space was in 2014.
The Dragon on present mission is packed with almost
6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of science research, crew supplies and hardware
and should arrive at the Monday(ISS time).
The supplies for special experiments
include live mice to study the effects of osteoporosis and fruit flies for
research on microgravity's impact on the heart.
The spacecraft is also loaded with
solar panels and equipment to study neutron stars.
After about 10 minutes after launch,
SpaceX successfully returned the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket back to a
controlled landing at Cape Canaveral.
The rocket powered its engines and
guided itself down to Landing Zone One, not far from the launch site.
"The first stage is back,"
Curie said in a NASA live webcast, as video images showed the tall, narrow
portion of the rocket touch down steadily in a cloud of smoke.
SpaceX said it marked the company's
fifth successful landing on solid ground. Several of its Falcon 9 rockets have
returned upright to platforms floating in the ocean.
The effort is part of SpaceX's push
to make spaceflight cheaper by re-using costly rocket
and spaceship components after each launch, rather than ditching them in the
ocean.
The launch was the 100th from NASA's
historic launch pad 39A, the starting point for the Apollo missions to the Moon
in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as a total of 82 shuttle flights.
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