SpaceX - CRS-1 Mission patch.
08 Oct 2012
Commercial Resupply Launch
Mission: SpaceX CRS-1
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 40
Date: October 7
Time: 8:35 p.m. EDT
Description: SpaceX CRS-1 will be the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
SpaceX CRS-1 Launch
The Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule lift off of the pad on a mission to open America's new operational cargo capability to the International Space Station!
SpaceX launched the first of a dozen operational missions to deliver supplies to the International Space Station on Oct. 7 for NASA. Launch time came at 8:35 p.m. from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, just a few miles south of the space shuttle launch pads. The spacecraft will be joined to the station three days later.
Image above: The SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule lift off Oct. 7. Photo credit: NASA.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell celebrated the successful liftoff of a landmark cargo mission to the International Space Station tonight as a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft loaded with supplies flew on its own in orbit. The flight is the first operational resupply mission for the company and NASA.
"This was a critical event in spaceflight tonight," Bolden said. "We're once again launching spacecraft from American soil with the supplies our astronauts need in space. NASA and the nation are embarking on an ambitious program of space exploration."
Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, launched its Dragon capsule aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 8:35 p.m. EDT, capping a flawless countdown with spectacular show of light and thunder from the rocket's nine engines.
"This was an operational mission, so we're operational (but that) doesn't mean we're going to stop learning and stop making these vehicles as reliable as possible," Shotwell said during a press conference after the launch.
SpaceX Dragon in orbit
Dragon will rendezvous with the orbiting laboratory Wednesday so astronaut and station commander Suni Williams can reach out with the station's robot arm and grapple the Dragon. The spacecraft will then be joined to one of the station's ports where astronauts will unload its 1,000 pounds of materials. They will also load almost 2,000 pounds of used equipment and experiments inside the Dragon to be returned to Earth safely in about three weeks.
For more information about SpaceX, visit: http://www.spacex.com/
Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV / SpaceX.
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