SpaceX's cargo-carrying Dragon spacecraft successfully launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket Friday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The unmanned spacecraft is on a resupply mission and plans to rendezvous with the International Space Station Sunday morning.
Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, expressed his excitement about the launch on NASA's space blog, saying, "I'm feeling pretty excited. This is a happy day."
Once in contact with the ISS, a robotic arm will capture the spacecraft and bring it in for a berth at the Harmony module port, NASA said.
This is the Dragon's third resupply mission to the ISS. On this mission, the space freighter is carrying 2.5 tons of cargo to the station. The payload includes some 150 experiments that range from growing plants efficiently in space to investigating how the human immune system functions in microgravity.
William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, said the planned experiments represent important research for the space program. The research "will help us improve our understanding of how humans adapt to living in space for long periods of time and help us develop technologies that will enable deep space exploration."
The Dragon will also deliver a set of high-tech legs for Robonaut 2, which is already aboard the station. The legs will allow the robotic torso to acquire better mobility, and, therefore, enable it to help with a variety of tasks aboard the ISS.
Musk has been very communicative about the mission on the NASA space blog, and said that SpaceX is achieving some success with tests on reigniting the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage on descent. The hope is that by refiring the stage for a soft ocean landing, it can be recovered intact and reusable.
The Dragon will remain at the ISS for a month. When it leaves, it will bring back almost 3,500 pounds of scientific experiments, hardware, supplies and tools. It's scheduled to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja, California, on May 18.
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Source : http://thespacereporter.com/2014/04/spacexs-dragon-successfully-launched-friday-heads-for-the-iss-on-resupply-mission/
