SpaceX launches first commercial cargo mission to International Space Station
565 views · Published 9 November 2012 · 0:44 · Indexed 11 October 2026
Channel: News Direct · 2012 · Science & Technology
A commercially contracted spacecraft has been launched on the first private mission to resupply the International Space Station. California-based SpaceX launched a Falcon rocket with a Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral at 8:35pm on Sunday. The Dragon capsule is expected to dock with the space station on Wednesday with its cargo of food, clothing and spare parts. It will return to Earth later this month carrying broken machinery and research materials. NASA wants private companies to conduct routine cargo transport missions to low Earth orbit. Another space company, Orbital Sciences, is preparing to test its Antares rocket, which would be used to lift its Cygnus spacecraft into orbit later this year. SpaceX is working on a manned version of the Dragon capsule it hopes will be ready by 2017. The capsule would replace the now-retired Space Shuttle and end NASA's reliance on Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
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