SpaceX meant to launch one of its recovered rockets as early as the northern hemisphere autumn this year, said Hans Koenigsmann, its vice-president for mission assurance.
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Also aboard the capsule was a metal docking ring of diameter 2.4 metres, that will be attached to the station, letting commercial spaceships under development by SpaceX and Boeing ferry astronauts to the station, a $US100-billion laboratory that flies about 400 km above Earth.
Set to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS), the 5,000lb of cargo includes instruments that would help perform the first-ever DNA sequencing in space, and the first international docking adapter for commercial spacecraft.
As an extra treat, the company brought its leftover first-stage booster back to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a vertical landing only the second such land landing for an orbital mission and the ultimate in recycling. The reusable rocket landed vertically just a few miles from the launch site, the fifth such vertical landing for SpaceX, which is owned and operated by Elon Musk.
SpaceX is a rocket company that designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. On Monday early morning, SpaceX launched another cargo supply ship from Florida.
The ninth of up to 20 missions by SpaceX to the ISS, CRS-9 carries 5,000 lb (2,270 kg) of supplies, equipment, and science experiments as well as a replacement for the docking ring lost in the destruction of CRS-7.
Three of the photos (including the one seen above) were taken using long exposures, meaning the cameras’ shutters were left open for a longer-than-normal period of time.
After five weeks in orbit, the Dragon will detach and steer itself back through Earth’s atmosphere to land in the Pacific Ocean under a parachute.
“Each commercial resupply flight to the space station is a significant event”.
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SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship is on top of the Falcon 9’s second stage rocket, which will be transporting 3,946 pounds of supplies, scientific equipment and research samples inside its pressurized cabin. It does require more fuel for success, however, meaning that for missions that burn a lot of fuel, landing on a drone ship in the sea will be necessary. The livestream begins at 12:25am ET, with the launch scheduled for 12:45am ET.
