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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets toward International Space Station (+video)

• Christian Science Monitor

Saturday morning's launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket went flawlessly. It's the company's fifth formal cargo flight under a $1.6 billion agreement with NASA to resupply the International Space Station.

By Pete Spotts, Staff writer January 10, 2015

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Some 2.5 tons of freight are speeding toward the International Space Station following Saturday morning's successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket topped with the company's Dragon cargo capsule.

The rocket launched at 4:47 a.m. Eastern Standard Time from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, following an aborted launch attempt Jan. 6. That launch was scrubbed less than two minutes before lift-off after launch controllers reported that a key component in the steering mechanism for the rocket's second stage wasn't working properly.

This morning's launch went flawlessly, delivering the capsule to orbit some 17 minutes after launch. It's the company's fifth formal cargo flight to the station under a $1.6 billion agreement with NASA to resupply the space station.

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Although the mission's primary goal is to deliver the goods to the station, the launch also  represented Space Exploration Technology Corporation's first try at returning a first-stage booster safely back to Earth. In this case, Earth was represented by a football-field-size, ocean-going platform dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship.


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