SpaceX Launches Dragon Resupply Craft to Space Station

SpaceX Falcon 9's CRS-19 mission launches on Dec. 5, 2019 (Atkeison)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. --  A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off into the blue skies over America's Space Coast Thursday successfully placing a resupply craft on a course toward the International Space Station.

The Dragon supply craft is making its third voyage to the space station, having flown in 2014 and 2017. Loaded with 5700 pounds of science experiments, the Dragon will spend one month docked to the station.

As the countdown reached zero, the Falcon's nine engines roared to life lifting the commerical rocket off it's seaside pad at 12:29:24 p.m. EST. The white rocket thundered into the deep blue sky riding a golden flame toward space.

SpaceX Dragon to ferry inflatable module, experiments to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A first of its kind expandable space habitat module and several tons of science equipment are poised to lift-off a top a SpaceX Falcon rocket on April 8 on a two-day voyage to resupply the International Space Station, NASA confirmed during a news conference on Monday.

NASA officials said the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has set next Friday for the launch of its Falcon 9 at 4:43 p.m. EDT, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The commercial company's Dragon supply ship will arrive on orbit nearly ten minutes later, deploy its solar arrays, and perform a series of thruster burns as the spacecraft chases down its port-of-call.

"This is a launch that we've been waiting for quite sometime because it's really important to our overall ISS Research Program," chief scientist for the International Space Station Program Dr. Julie Robinson on Monday. "It has about 2000 kg of research equipment and supplies. The big driver on that amount of mass is that we have about 1400 kg of the BEAM module which will be tested on ISS -- that's the heavy one."

This 23rd flight of a Falcon 9 will mark the company's eighth operational Dragon launch under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. The launch will also mark the first flight of a Dragon supply craft since the June 2015 explosion of a Falcon 9 which destroyed its Dragon off America's Space Coast.

Two days following launch, Dragon will be grappled by the station's 57-foot robotic arm at about 7:00 a.m., and slowly maneuvered over to its docking port on the space facing side of the Tranquility module. Dragon will then dock to the orbital outpost three hours later.

SpaceX Dragon splashes down with space station equipment for NASA

A commercial resupply spacecraft loaded with science experiments and cargo undocked from the International Space Station on Tuesday and performed a pinpoint splashdown hours later in the Pacific Ocean.

Dragon's return capped a 31-day space voyage of which 29 days were spent docked to the Earth-facing side of the space station's Harmony module. The supply ship delivered nearly 5,100 pounds of fresh oxygen, food, equipment and water to the four man, two woman international crew on Jan. 12.

Grappled by the station's Canadian-built robotic arm, the Space Exploration Corp. Dragon was released into space at 2:10 p.m. EST, as the two spaceships soared 260 miles high over southern Australia. Filled with 3,700 pounds of numerous biological and physical samples, equipment and trash, Dragon then performed a series of burns to place it on course for a deorbit burn.

Once Dragon reached a precise point over Earth, it fired its thrusters to slow down the craft's speed by two hundred miles per hour and drop out of orbit. Forty minutes later, two massive parachutes slowed the charred spacecraft down allowing for a safe water landing at 7:44 p.m. EST, 259 miles southwest of Long Beach, California.

Dragon remains the only American spacecraft which can return science cargo safely to Earth so that scientists and engineers on the ground can analysis the data. This concluded flight was SpaceX fifth supply craft to deliver cargo and supplies to the space station and return successfully to earth.

"The ability to resupply and return this critical research continues to be an invaluable asset for the researchers here on Earth using the International Space Station as their laboratory in orbit," Kirt Costello, NASA deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program, said on Tuesday.

A European unmanned cargo craft is also due to depart the space station this week. The Automated Transfer Vehicle 5 will leave the orbital outpost on Saturday morning en route to a fiery re-entry and burn up over the Pacific waters.

SpaceX resupply craft docked to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A commercial cargo craft made an Easter Sunday arrival at the International Space Station delivering several tons of fresh supplies for it's crew of six.

Filled with 3,500 pounds of equipment, including over 150 science experiments, the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft was docked to the orbiting laboratory for the next four weeks.

Station commander and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata operated the Canadian-built robotic arm to capture Dragon at 7:14 a.m. EDT, on April 20, as the two spacecraft soared 260 miles above Egypt.

Wakata and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio then moved over to the Destiny module for the actual docking of the supply craft to the earth facing port of the Harmony node.

Mastracchio then began driving sixteen bolts into place which was completed at 10:06 a.m. to firmly attach Dragon to Harmony.

This Dragon resupply flight is the third of twelve planned flights by SpaceX in a contract deal with NASA worth nearly $1.4 billion. Three more Dragon resupply flights are scheduled for 2014.

Astronauts will open the hatch way into Dragon on Monday morning and begin unloading the craft.

SpaceX Dragon launches on resupply flight to space station

Falcon 9 lifts-off Friday from Cape Canaveral to resupply space station. (SpaceX)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A commercial spacecraft loaded with supplies departed America's Space Coast on Friday en route to the International Space Station and it's six person crew.

The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) Dragon cargo craft is loaded with nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies including water, oxygen, food and equipment for the earth orbiting laboratory.

"Everything looks great with the ascent phase of the mission," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk confirmed from his company's mission control in Hawthorne, California after launch. "Everything is good on the Dragon front."

The Dragon capsule, riding a top the company's Falcon 9 rocket, lifted-off from it's ocean side launch pad and into an overcast Florida sky at 3:25:22 p.m. EDT, the opening of a one second launch window.

The Falcon's 855,000 pounds of thrust created a 300-foot golden flame pushing the rocket higher as it moved out over the Atlantic waters.

The space station's crew watched the SpaceX television feed of the lift-off as it happened 260 miles above.

Monday's launch marked the third of twelve planned flights by SpaceX in a nearly $1.5 billion contract deal with NASA.

The successful SpaceX launch comes four days after the commercial company signed a twenty-year land lease with NASA for use of the historic launch pad 39-A. SpaceX plans to launch manned spacecraft to the space station from the formed Apollo and space shuttle pad as early as 2017.

On Easter Sunday, the Dragon craft will rendezvous and close to within 20 feet of the orbiting outpost before being grappled by the station's 57-foot long Canadian robotic arm at 7:14 a.m.

Station commander and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio will operate the robotic arm from the station's pressurized 360-degree field of view inside the cupola module.

Just over two hours after the capture, the station's crew will dock Dragon to the earth facing port of the station's Harmony module.

Over the next month, astronauts will unload the resupply craft's 2.3 tons of supplies, and later load Dragon with completed science experiments and trash for it's return to earth sometime in late-May.

Falcon's launch occurred after a five week delay caused by a contamination problem with the payloads section aboard Dragon, and the failure of an Cape Canaveral radar designed to track the rocket in flight.

A launch attempt last Monday was also scrubbed due a hydrogen leak on the rocket's first stage.

NASA is preparing for a spacewalk on Wednesday by astronauts Mastracchio and Steve Swanson to replace a failed station back-up computer known as a multiplexer/ demultiplexer with a spare now located in the station's airlock.

The spacewalk is expected to begin at 9:20 a.m. and last nearly three hours.

(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

Commercial cargo craft Dragon launches to Space Station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A privately owned cargo craft destined to resupply the International Space Station with new science experiments and supplies lifted-off from America's Space Coast on Friday.

The flight by Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) marks it's second operational resupply flight by a commercial company, and will repeat the company's first flight last October in which saw their unmanned craft captured by the station's robotic arm for docking.

On the same day as a major government spending cuts began, NASA associate administrator Lori Garver today applauded the private sector's venture into space exploration moments before launch.

As the countdown ticked closer to zero, the weather forecast improved and the Falcon 9 rocket was pressurized for flight.

The 157-foot Falcon 9 launched into the cloudy skies over Cape Canaveral at 10:10:13 a.m. EST, to begin it's twenty-hour sprint to earth's orbital outpost in space.

This flight will also mark the quickest time in which America has sent a spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory. Currently, Russia has developed a flight plan which allows their Progress M cargo craft to arrive at the complex just six hours after launch.

Powered by nine Merlin engines, the Falcon 9 soared out over the Atlantic waters just as the space station passed 250 miles high over the southern tip of Florida.

Three minutes later, the engines were shutdown and the first stage separated followed seconds later by the protective payload fairing.

The second stage's engines quickly took over pushing the Dragon module higher and faster.


The resupply craft was then let go from the second stage ten minutes after lift-off.

However, one minute later, SpaceX controllers in Hawthorne, California delayed the deployment of the craft's twin solar arrays when three of four thruster pods which are used to move around.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk later Tweeted that the solar arrays were successfully deployed before noon after a second thruster pod became active.
The thruster issue has forced a delay in Dragon's ability to reach the outpost early on Saturday.

Dragon is loaded with over 1200 pounds of oxygen, fuel, food and experiments which it will deliver following docking on Saturday, including a special package of California grown apples, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said on Thursday.

On Saturday, space station astronauts Kevin Ford and Thomas Marshburn will use the station's 57-foot Canadarm 2 to reach out and snag the arriving cargo craft.

Two hours later, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center near Houston will slowly guide the craft over for it's docking to the station's Harmony node.

Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft in the world to have a heat shield and parachutes which allows NASA to return real time science experiments back to earth safely.

Twenty-five days following it's launch, Dragon will be unberthed and will soar towards a same day splashdown in the Pacific Ocean some 200 miles off the coast of Baja California.

CRS 3 is planned for late-Fall of this year, Gwynne Shotwell stated on Thursday, and it will fly atop an upgraded Falcon 9.


(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.) 

Commercial cargo craft Dragon departs space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first operational commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station was released back on it's own on Sunday after delivering fresh supplies and hardware to a crew of six.

Built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies Inc. or SpaceX, the Dragon cargo craft was launched from Cape Canaveral on October 7 with nearly 880 pounds of supplies for the station's crew.

During the craft's nearly three weeks docked with the orbiting complex, astronauts unloaded the new supplies and then loaded 1,673 pounds of cargo and trash, including several science experiments, for the return home. One experiment headed home contains living spiders.

Operated by ground controllers, the space station's 58-foot Canada-built robotic arm slowly eased Dragon back away from it's docking port at 7:19 a.m. EDT, 263 miles above earth.

The craft anchored at the end of the arm was moved out to 30 feet away before being released upon the ocean of space at 9:29 a.m.

Dragon's current mission is the first of twelve planned resupply flight's to the orbital outpost in a commercial agreement valued at over $1.5 billion with NASA during the next four years.

The supply craft is expected to leave earth orbit at 2:28 p.m. as the spacecraft fires it's engines for ten minutes to slow it's orbital speed down.

Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft to have a heat shield and parachutes which can allow NASA to return space flown hardware and science experiments back to earth safely.

Splashdown is expected about 250 miles off the coast of Baja California at about 3:20 p.m.



(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

Commercial cargo craft launches toward Space Station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A commercial cargo craft loaded with fresh supplies and equipment lifted-off tonight on a voyage to resupply earth's orbital outpost in space.

This first operational resupply flight by a private company, Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), is designed to repeat the company's test flight last May which saw their Dragon unmanned craft approach the International Space Station to be grappled by the station's robotic arm for docking.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket departed America's Space Coast on-time at 8:35:07 p.m. EDT, to begin a nearly three day voyage to catch up with the space station.

"We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon's approach to the space station," Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, said from his company's control room in California following the craft's arrival on orbit. "The launch was an unqualified success."

The rocket's Merlin engines light up the night time Florida sky as it rose up and then darted out over the Atlantic waters as the space station soared 250 miles high above the southern Pacific Ocean.

Ten minutes after lift-off, the Dragon resupply spacecraft separated from the Falcon's upper stage to begin it's voyage to the space station.

"We are ready to grab Dragon!", NASA astronaut and station commander Suni Williams radioed down to mission control as Dragon arrived on orbit.

Dragon is loaded with nearly 900 pounds of food, oxygen, fuel and experiments which it will deliver following docking on Wednesday.

Dragon's launch is the first of twelve planned resupply flight's to the orbital outpost in a commercial agreement valued at over $1.5 billion with NASA over the next four years.

"Today's launch is a huge milestone for us; we have roughly 700 pounds of equipment coming home when Dragon returns," Julie Robinson, NASA program head with the space station program stated moments after launch. "It's a really important flight for us."

Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will maneuver the station's 58-foot robotic arm out to grapple the appraching supply craft on Wednesday at 7:22 a.m.

The craft will then be berthed by Williams two hours later to the American Harmony port which faces toward earth.

There it will stay for three weeks while the current space station crew of three unload the new supplies and later begin storing experiments, used equipment and garbage for the craft's return to earth.

Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft to have a heat shield and parachutes which allows NASA to return space flown hardware and real time science experiments back to earth safely.

Dragon is expected to make a splashdown off the United States Pacific coastline around October 29.


(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

Space station astronauts unload Dragon supply craft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station spent Saturday unloading fresh supplies from the newly arrived commercial spacecraft Dragon.

Constructed and launched by the private company Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, Dragon arrived at the orbiting complex on Friday loaded with nearly 1200 pounds of clothes, food, water and a computer for the crew.

Flight engineer Don Pettit, who used the station's 57-foot robotic arm to pluck Dragon from space and berth it to Harmony, and two astronauts will begin on Monday unloading the craft.

The trio will then reload Dragon with station experiments, trash and equipment for it's return to earth.

Dragon will stay berthed to the station's Harmony node until Thursday.

"May 31st is our planned departure day," NASA lead flight director Holly Ridings explained to this aerospace reporter. "We've got a couple of days after that to work with, and then the Dragon if needed could stay after that."

The station's crew have bagged up most of what will return to earth.

"We're gonna have plenty of time to get Dragon unloaded and loaded back up," Pettit answered when I asked him about the short timeline. "There's about as much stuff in (Dragon) as I can put in the back of my pick-up truck, and I don't think there will be any issue with the three of us working and getting this thing unloaded over the next few days."

The final Dragon mission objective will come with the safe recovery of the payloads the craft returns from the orbital outpost.

Dragon is expected to splashdown in the Pacific waters at about 10:45 a.m. EDT, some 250 miles off the coast of southern California nearly five hours after leaving the space station.


(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology for Examiner.com. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

First private spacecraft docks to space station

May 24, 2012 NASA / SpaceX news conference to update Dragon.

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station spent Saturday unloading fresh supplies from the newly arrived commercial spacecraft Dragon.

Constructed and launched by the private company Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, Dragon arrived at the orbiting complex on Friday loaded with nearly 1200 pounds of clothes, food, water and a computer for the crew.

Flight engineer Don Pettit, who used the station's 57-foot robotic arm to pluck Dragon from space and berth it to Harmony, and two astronauts will begin on Monday unloading the craft.

The trio will then reload Dragon with station experiments, trash and equipment for it's return to earth.

Dragon will stay berthed to the station's Harmony node until Thursday.
"May 31st is our planned departure day," NASA lead flight director Holly Ridings explained to this aerospace reporter. "We've got a couple of days after that to work with, and then the Dragon if needed could stay after that."

The station's crew have bagged up most of what will be loaded and returned to earth.
"We're gonna have plenty of time to get Dragon unloaded and loaded back up," Pettit answered when I asked him about the short timeline.

 "There's about as much stuff in (Dragon) as I can put in the back of my pick-up truck, and I don't think there will be any issue with the three of us working and getting this thing unloaded over the next few days."

The final Dragon mission objective will come with the safe recovery of the payloads the craft returns from the orbital outpost.

Dragon is expected to splashdown in the Pacific waters at about 10:45 a.m. EDT, some 250 miles off the coast of southern California nearly five hours after leaving the space station.



(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology for Examiner.com. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)

First commercial spacecraft lifts-off on space station supply flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new era in space travel began on Tuesday as the first private spacecraft lifted-off from Florida designed to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station.

Built and launched by Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, a Falcon 9 rocket delivered a spacecraft loaded with nearly fourteen-hundred pounds of food, water, and clothing into earth orbit destined to resupply earth's orbital outpost.

"I think its great commercial enterprise can take us into space," states David Dundee, lead astronomer at Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta. "I was watching the launch with great interest the whole morning."

It is America's first resupply mission to the complex in ten months as the next generation craft grabs a hold of the torch blazed by the space shuttle era.

Lift-off of the Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 3:44:38 a.m. EDT, on Tuesday soaring into the clear dark skies over Cape Canaveral and toward a rising Sun and the dawn of a new era in space technology.

At launch, the space station was orbiting 249 miles high above the north Atlantic waters.

SpaceX orbits and returns spacecraft today

Falcon 9 second stage engine above earth today. (SpaceX)

A private rocket company launched an unmanned spacecraft and returned it safely to earth today in a test flight for NASA to demonstrate future ferry flights to the International Space Station.

Space Exploration Technologies or Space X is a private company founded by PayPal founder Elon Musk. The company has developed their Falcon 9 rocket in support of lofting an unmanned cargo craft to the space station in 2011, and attempt human space flights over the next decade.

The 180-foot tall Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with an active Dragon C1 craft at 10:43 am EST, following a brief delay due to a technical issue.

The white candle stick darted straight up and then out over the central Atlantic Ocean on a chilly, beautiful morning along the Space Coast.

The Falcon 9 later delivered the Dragon into an orbital inclination of 34.53 degrees, and an altitude of about 140 miles.

The active cargo craft performed two orbits of earth testing on board systems and performing several firings of it's eighteen cone-shaped thrusters.

The Dragon, loaded with patches, ID badges and not much else from the company's hundreds of employees, completed two orbits of the earth before being maneuvered for it's return to earth.

The craft made an on target splashdown at 2:04 pm about 500 miles east of the Mexican coastline, SpaceX announced.

"It was a moment of jubilant and great relief," Musk stated when asked of his thoughts as the parachutes opened and the craft approached landing.

"There's so much that can go wrong and it all went right," Musk added. "I'm sort of in semi-shock."

The ten-foot high, capsule styled module ran solely on lithium ion batteries on this brief flight. Future flights lasting several weeks will use dual solar arrays to generate power.

SpaceX is working toward launching a fully loaded supply craft to the space station as early as next November as NASA prepares to retire the space shuttle program. The Falcon 9 is rated to carry as much as 23,050 pounds to the space station.

Musk said on Wednesday he feels confident that his company can launch an empty craft to the station, fly around and return it back home. The first docking flight with the complex is scheduled for around November.

Only two planned shuttle flights are all that is left, and each will be destined to deliver supplies and equipment to earth's orbital outpost.

Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency will launch their own government ran supply crafts in January and February, each destined to bring supplies for their county's own module.

Commercial rocket delayed until 10:43 am EST

T-0 of the new Falcon 9 rocket now reset for 10:43 am EST this morning from Cape Canaveral.

The launch countdown earlier got down to just under 3 minutes before a hold was called followed by an engineer shouting, "Abort, abort, abort!".

SpaceX announced later that, ""We had a false abort on the Ordnance Interrupter (OI) ground feedback on position in our terminal count".

Adding that a false telemetry reading caused earlier abort.

The countdown has been recycled to the T-13 minute point and holding.

SpaceX Targets June 4 for Falcon 9 Launch

Falcon 9's March engine test at Cape Canaveral (SpaceX)

The private sector will gain new ground in the advancement of space flight as a future rocket destined for trips to the International Space Station prepares for it's inaugural launch next week.

A private company known as SpaceX was approved by NASA in 2008 to develop their Falcon 9 rocket in support of lofting an unmanned cargo craft to the space station and human space flights in a few years.

Scheduled for launch no earlier than June 4, the Falcon 9 will carry a dummy test payload which will double for the Dragon resupply craft. An official launch announcement could come as early as Monday afternoon.

The 180-foot tall Falcon will use nine Merlin 1C main engines as it rises from launch complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and arcs out over the Atlantic waters.

Each Merlin 1C is fueled by a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene, and will burn for nearly the first three minutes of ascent.

The first stage will then separate and the second stage's single engine will begin it's five minute burn.

SpaceX reminded this reporter that both the first and second stages are reusable, and following splash down can be recovered for a future flight.

On March 13, the launch team performed a successful test firing of it's nine main engines for nearly four seconds.

A Falcon 9 is rated to carry as much as 23,050 pounds into low earth orbit, and up to 10,000 pounds into geostationary orbit.

NASA is watching over the shoulder of SpaceX as the space agency looks at using private companies in launching their astronauts and supplies to the Space Station.

Currently NASA has a contract with the Russian Space Agency in which American astronauts will use their Soyuz to reach earth's orbital outpost. NASA's direction under the Obama administration is to privatize space flight so that American's can ride their own vehicle's into earth orbit in the next two years beginning with Falcon 9.

The NASA directed Constellation program was scaled back to a lighter version of the Orion crew module, and will likely begin flying no earlier than 2015 from Kennedy Space Center.

A second Falcon 9 launch is targeted for this Fall, and based on a successful flight in June, will deploy the Dragon C1 for a multi-hour flight in earth orbit.

The nearly ten-foot high Dragon is a capsule styled module designed to carry several tons of supplies to station; and according to the company's founder Elon Musk will begin carrying as many as seven astronauts into orbit by 2013.

Former space shuttle and space station expedition astronaut Ken Bowersox will oversee the astronaut training from the Florida launch site.