This is SpaceX's tenth supply mission for the International Space Station, but the Dragon capsule on the rocket is carrying a special payload. It's hauling an experimental module, Raven that will test autonomous space rendezvous technology: its three-sensor array will track spacecraft visiting the station and help guide them safely to their intended destination.

Expect launches from 39A and elsewhere to be relatively commonplace. SpaceX vowed that it would launch rockets every 2 to 3 weeks, and it's clearly making good on that promise so far. The company is clearing its backlog of launches following the September explosion and wants to satisfy customers (including NASA) who've been waiting months to get cargo into orbit.</s>Success all around for today’s SpaceX mission. The company successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft that is on its way to the International Space Station. SpaceX also successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral.

The weather was cloudy but it looks like it wasn’t enough to stop SpaceX from launching a rocket. At 9:39 ET, the Falcon 9 took off from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.

While this name might not sound familiar, the Apollo 11 mission used this launch complex to send the first humans to the Moon back in 1969. This is the first time this launch complex is used since the 2011 Space Shuttle launch.

Two and a half minutes later, the second stage parted ways with the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. The first stage was on its way back to Earth, while the second stage was carrying the Dragon spacecraft.

And just eight minutes after the initial takeoff, the first stage successfully landed at Cape Canaveral.

Meanwhile in space, the Dragon spacecraft deployed its solar panels and is now going to orbit around the Earth for a couple of days until it gets closer to the International Space Station. The spacecraft is carrying 5,500 pounds of supplies for the astronauts currently in space.</s>Falcon 9 was carrying the Dragon spacecraft, which successfully detached from Falcon 9's second stage.</s>Watch as SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft leaves the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying supplies and experiments to the ISS.</s>SpaceX has pushed back the date for launching its unmanned Red Dragon spacecraft to Mars, according to a report from Engadget‘s Mariella Moon.

SpaceX had originally planned on launching Red Dragon in 2022, but then boldly pushed the date up in April of 2016, announcing they hoped the craft would be ready to launch in 2018. Now it appears they have had to adjust their schedule yet again. SpaceX now plans to launch Red Dragon in 2020.

“SpaceX is still relentlessly gunning for Mars, but the company has admitted that the current plans for its first unmanned flight might be a tad too ambitious,” Moon writes. “SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has revealed that its robotic Martian lander called Red Dragon won’t be ready in 2018 like the company wanted.”

Of course sending an unmanned spacecraft — or any spacecraft — to Mars is a complicated process. But SpaceX has proven in the past that it is capable of taking on monumental tasks. In fact, SpaceX has already achieved things in the realm of space travel that no other company before has been able to do.

“Dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial spacecraft in history to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and safely return cargo to Earth, a feat previously achieved only by governments,” reads the page on the Dragon spacecraft on the official SpaceX website.

SpaceX continues to send Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. They launched another Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon on Sunday.

The Red Dragon that SpaceX intends to send to Mars is part of the company’s same Dragon series of “free-flying spacecraft” that make deliveries to the International Space Station. SpaceX uses the Falcon, a two-stage rocket the company designed and manufactured, to launch Dragon spacecrafts into space so that they can deliver goods and equipment to resupply the International Space Station.

To launch the Red Dragon into space and on its way to Mars, the company has designed the much more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time later this year.

“When Falcon Heavy lifts off in 2017, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two,” SpaceX boasts on its website. “With the ability to lift into orbit over 54 metric tons (119,000 lb) — a mass equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel — Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9.”

The Red Dragon’s trip to Mars will be be the beginning of what SpaceX and its founder and CEO, Elon Musk, hope will ultimately result in human colonization of the Red Planet. As Space.com previously reported, SpaceX unveiled plans to colonize Mars back in 2016, and the Falcon Heavy will play a major role in those plans.

“SpaceX aims to help establish a permanent, self-sustaining city on the Red Planet using the company’s proposed Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), which will pair the most powerful rocket ever built with a big, crew-carrying spaceship,” Space.com‘s Mike Wall reported at the time.

SpaceX’s Mars colonization plans are even more ambitious than they may first seem. While the company believes it can launch the initial phases of colonization at a cost of about $10 billion per colonist (seats will be expensive), it hopes it can lower that number substantially and ultimately transport up to 1 million people to Mars within the next 50 to 100 years.

That would make for a good sized colony, to say the least.

But first, SpaceX has to prove it can get the Red Dragon to Mars. It looks like we’ll know the answer to that question within the next few years.</s>Using NASA’s historic pad 39A, which once sent Apollo moonships and space shuttles on their way, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center Sunday, boosting a Dragon cargo ship into orbit to deliver nearly 5,500 pounds of equipment, supplies research material to the International Space Station.

It was the first use of pad 39A since the shuttle Atlantis blasted off on the program’s final mission in July 2011 and despite heavy cloud cover, the Falcon 9’s fiery climb away from the familiar launch complex sent a thrill through spaceport workers, area residents and tourists who were disappointed by a last-minute delay Saturday.

Their patience was rewarded with a launch and a landing. While the rocket’s second stage was boosting the cargo ship to orbit, the first stage successfully flew itself back to a pinpoint touchdown at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, dropping out of the clouds atop a jet of flame after rocking the area with sonic booms.

It was the California rocket builder’s eighth successful booster recovery in 13 tries, its third at the Air Force station, in an on-going push by SpaceX founder Elon Musk to lower costs by recovering, refurbishing and re-launching spent stages.

But the primary goal of the mission was to lift the Dragon cargo ship into orbit and to inaugurate the repurposed launch pad, which was heavily modified to convert it from shuttle use to the Falcon 9.

The mission got underway at 9:39 a.m. EST (GMT-5) when the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D first-stage engine ignited with a roar, throttled up to full power and quickly pushed the booster away from its transporter-erector at the top of the pad.

Liftoff came a day late because of a problem with the rocket’s second stage steering system that stopped the countdown Saturday just 13 seconds before launch. Engineers resolved the problem overnight and despite concerns about the weather, the countdown ticked smoothly down to engine ignition Sunday.

Arcing to the east atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust, the slender Falcon 9 rapidly shed weight and smoothly accelerated as it consumed its first-stage load of liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel, breaking through the “sound barrier” a little more than a minute after liftoff as it climbed through the dense lower atmosphere.

The first stage engines shut down as expected about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the stage then fell away and the single engine powering the Falcon 9’s second stage ignited to continue the push to orbit.

The first stage, meanwhile, flipped around and fired three of its engines to reverse its forward progress and put it on a trajectory back toward Cape Canaveral. A second engine firing then slowed the craft for its plunge back into the thick lower atmosphere.

Deploying so-called “grid fins” to control its orientation and trajectory, the booster plunged toward the landing pad tail first, restarting its center engine for the final time. Four landing legs then deployed and locked in place and the rocket stage settled to an on-target touchdown.

Two minutes later, the Falcon 9 second stage finished its climb to space and at 9:49 a.m., about 10 minutes after liftoff, the Dragon cargo ship was released into the planned preliminary orbit. A few moments later, its two solar panels deployed and SpaceX reported the craft was in good health going into a two-day rendezvous.

If all goes well, the Dragon will catch up with the International Space Station early Wednesday, pulling up to within about 30 feet and then standing by while the lab’s robot arm, operated by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, locks onto a grapple fixture. At that point, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center will take over arm operations, pulling the Dragon in for berthing at the forward Harmony module’s Earth-facing port.

Carried inside the Dragon’s pressurized compartment, the section accessible by the station crew, are 580 pounds of crew supplies, 842 pounds of spare parts and other vehicle hardware and more than 1,600 pounds of science gear.

Twenty mice also are on board to help researchers learn more about what processes prevent most vertebrates from regrowing lost limbs or tissue. All 20 will be euthanized, dissected on the station and returned to Earth aboard the Dragon for comparisons with mice that underwent the same protocols on Earth.

Also on board: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in an experiment to learn more about how the deadly bacteria mutate to design more effective drugs.

“We are excited to put MRSA, which is a superbug, on the International Space Station and investigate the effects of microgravity on the growth and mutation patterns of these bugs,” said Anita Goel, chairman and science director of Nanobiosym, which developed the experiment with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space.

“I have this hypothesis that microgravity will accelerate the mutation patterns. If we can use microgravity as an accelerator to fast forward and get a sneak preview of what these mutations will look like, then we can essentially build smarter drugs back on Earth.”

Mounted in the Dragon’s unpressurized “trunk” section are a $92 million ozone monitoring experiment, a $7 million sensor to monitor lightning strikes and experimental gear designed to help engineers perfect autonomous rendezvous and docking software.

“Lightning actually occurs somewhere on Earth some 45 times every single second,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “Understanding the processes that cause lightning and the connections between lightning and subsequent severe weather events, like connvective storms and tornados, are keys to improving weather predictions and saving life and property in this country and (around) the globe.”

The lightning sensor, the RAVEN rendezvous experiment and the SAGE III ozone hardware will be extracted from the Dragon’s trunk by the station’s robot arm and mounted on platforms along the lab’s solar power truss.

“Researchers will use SAGE III data to monitor the recovery of stratospheric ozone, the so-called ozone layer, as a result of the Montreal protocol,” Freilich said. “SAGE III will also measure other important stratospheric gases and atmospheric aerosols, which are components of pollution that also impact the radiation balance of our planet.”

Freilich downplayed concerns about the Trump administration’s possible impact on Earth science at NASA, saying the agency is “pursuing a broad and aggressive program of instruments and spacecraft development with some 20 launches planned by NASA between the launch of CRS-10 and about 2022.”

“We have several more instruments we are developing to fly on the space station and several missions, stand alone and with international partners, that will be observing many different aspects of the Earth system in that timeframe. We are moving full speed ahead to continue to observe our planet, to monitor its changes and to turn the knowledge we are getting from those observations into societal benefit.”

Sunday’s launching marked the second success in a row for SpaceX following an on-pad explosion Sept. 1 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station that destroyed a Falcon 9, it’s $200 million satellite payload and heavily damaged launch complex 40. The mishap was the company’s second in 29 rockets following an in-flight breakup in June 2015 that destroyed another station-bound Dragon cargo ship.

Both accidents were blamed on problems with the helium pressurization system used in the Falcon 9’s second stage. Hardware and procedures were changed to minimize the chances for another mishap and SpaceX successfully returned the Falcon 9 to flight with a Jan. 14 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., that boosted 10 Iridium satellite telephone relay stations into orbit.

The company hopes to return pad 40 to service in the May timeframe and will use 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the next several flights, launching an EchoStar communications satellite around the end of the month followed launch of an SES relay station in March, the first using a refurbished first stage.

Those two flights will be followed by launch of an Intelsat communications station and then another cargo mission to the space station.

Since the explosion five months ago at the Air Force station, engineers worked around the clock to complete extensive modifications to the historic pad where huge Saturn 5s once boosted Apollo astronauts to the moon, where the shuttle Columbia took off on the program’s first flight in 1981 and where Atlantis climbed away on the final flight in 2011.

A large rocket-processing hangar at the base of the elevated pad now blocks the old river-rock roadway where massive crawlers once carried Saturn rockets and space shuttles. Falcon 9s will be carried from the hangar, which can house five rockets at a time, to the top of the pad horizontally by a transporter-erector and then raised vertical using a powerful hydraulic system.

Propellant lines leading to liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel tanks are in place along with a revamped water deluge system to cool pad structures during launch and to deaden the acoustic shock of engine ignition. Data and power lines have been installed and the old flame trench bisecting the pad to carry exhaust away has been partially filled in with hydraulic and other systems.

SpaceX is slowly dismantling the old payload changeout room that used to swing into place around space shuttles before launch but will keep the central fixed service structure gantry. A crew access swing arm will be installed later for use by astronauts boarding SpaceX commercial crew capsules for flights to the International Space Station.

SpaceX officials say the modifications will exceed $100 million when the work is complete.

If all goes well, SpaceX hopes to launch a heavy-lift version of the Falcon 9 sometime this summer, a booster made up of three first stages bolted together and a standard single-engine second stage.

In November, an unpiloted Dragon crew capsule will be launched from pad 39A on a test flight before the first spacecraft carrying astronauts takes off next year.</s>A SpaceX Falcon rocket blasted off Sunday morning from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A. It's carrying a load of supplies for the International Space Station.

Astronauts flew to the moon from this very spot nearly a half-century ago. The pad was last used for NASA's final shuttle mission nearly six years ago.

This is SpaceX's first launch from Florida since a rocket explosion last summer. As an extra special treat, SpaceX landed the booster rocket back at Cape Canaveral following liftoff, for only the third time. Cheers erupted inside SpaceX Mission Control. A minute or two later, the SpaceX Dragon supply ship successfully reached orbit, generating more applause.

SpaceX is leasing the pad from NASA for 20 years. The company hopes to launch U.S. astronauts from there next year.</s>SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket for its 10th resupply mission to the International Space Station. The spacecraft is carrying more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and research materials.</s>Major experiments that will look into a range of scientific disciplines from human health to atmospheric conditions on Earth are on their way to the International Space Station following liftoff at 9:39 a.m. EST aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. About 5,500 pounds of research equipment, cargo and supplies are packed into the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that is now in Earth orbit and headed to the station on the CRS-10 mission.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was the first commercial launch from Kennedy’s historic pad.

Astronauts Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and Shane Kimbrough of NASA will use the space station’s robotic arm to capture Dragon when it arrives at the station. Live coverage of the rendezvous and capture will begin at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22 on NASA TV and the agency’s website, with installation coverage set to begin at 8:30 a.m.

Research materials flying inside the Dragon’s pressurized area include a crystal growth experiment that will crystallize a monoclonal antibody that is undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of immunological diseases. Growing the crystal in space will allow it develop more than it could on Earth where gravity causes crystals to collapse on themselves. Preserving these antibodies in crystals allows researchers a glimpse into how the biological molecules are arranged, which can provide new information about how they work in the body. So far, Earth-grown crystalline suspensions of monoclonal antibodies have proven to be too low-quality to fully model.

Better defining how some bacteria become drug-resistant is the focus of another experiment that aims to develop medicines that counter the resistance. Stem cells like those used to treat strokes and other occurrences also will be studied using experiment supplies brought up on this flight.

The equipment aboard the Dragon includes a major instrument that will survey Earth’s upper atmosphere in a continuation of one of NASA’s longest-running Earth-observing programs. Called SAGE III for Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment, the instrument examines the levels of ozone, aerosols, nitrogen dioxide and water vapor in the stratosphere and troposphere high above Earth. It is the latest version of an experiment that began in 1979 and has created a multi-decade record of measurements. The 2,200-pound instrument will be connected to the outside of the station to make daily observations for several years.

The mission is the company’s tenth cargo flight to the station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. Dragon’s cargo will support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations during the station’s Expeditions 50 and 51.

Dragon is scheduled to depart the space station in late March, returning nearly 5,000 pounds of science, hardware and crew supplies.

For more than 16 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space. A global endeavor, more than 200 people from 18 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 1,900 research investigations from researchers in more than 95 countries.</s>This is SpaceX's tenth supply mission for the International Space Station, but the Dragon capsule on the rocket is carrying a special payload. It's hauling an experimental module, Raven that will test autonomous space rendezvous technology: its three-sensor array will track spacecraft visiting the station and help guide them safely to their intended destination.

Expect launches from 39A and elsewhere to be relatively commonplace. SpaceX vowed that it would launch rockets every 2 to 3 weeks, and it's clearly making good on that promise so far. The company is clearing its backlog of launches following the September explosion and wants to satisfy customers (including NASA) who've been waiting months to get cargo into orbit.
SpaceX successfully launches a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, placing a Dragon spacecraft in orbit and recovering the launcher's first stage. The spacecraft will resupply the International Space Station.