Also onboard the capsule was a metal docking ring with a 2.4m diameter that will be attached to the station, letting commercial spaceships under development by SpaceX and Boeing ferry astronauts to the station, which flies approximately 400km above the Earth. The capsule is loaded with almost 5,000 pounds of supplies and science equipment for the station, a permanently staffed research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth.
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The 12:45 a.m. launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was SpaceX’s second attempt at delivering a new-style docking adaptor for NASA.
It was only the second time that a returning SpaceX rocket landed on the ground, an option only when the rocket has enough fuel to spare after dispatching its payload into orbit.
Musk published a blog post on the SpaceX website the day before the company accomplished its first rocket landing on solid ground (which was for – you guessed it – an LEO mission) that touches on these things and provides some more detail.
A SpaceX rocket blasted off Monday toward the International Space Station, carrying a load of supplies for the astronauts living in space, including equipment to enable future spaceships to park at the orbiting outpost.
The landing is another achievement for SpaceX’s plan to reuse rocket stages. But it also carries a bit of hardware externally: an worldwide docking adaptor, or IDA.
NASA’s space station program manager Kirk Shireman expected to be “sweating bullets without a doubt” at liftoff, as always.
Among the cargo is the first of two global docking adapters, which will allow USA commercial spacecraft to dock to the station when transporting astronauts in the near future. The space agency wants two docking adapters on the space station to support the presence of two US crew vehicles at the same time.
The rocket will arrive at the International Space Station with its replacement shipment on Wednesday.
SpaceX has successfully launched a docking port into orbit en route to the International Space Station. After splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, more than 3,300 pounds of science, hardware, crew supplies and spacewalk tools will be returned to shore.
The 58-foot robotic arm of the space station will retrieve the IDA from the Dragon cargo ship and spacewalkers will complete the installation of the adapter in August.
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Musk, however, previously said the first recovered Falcon 9 will fly again in September or October.
