From the identical launchpad used to ship males to the Moon through the Apollo missions, the Business Resupply Providers(CRS)-10 mission blasted off at 9:39 a.m. Japanese Time sure for the orbiting laboratory.
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CRS-10 lifted off from the historic Launch Advanced 39A at 9:39 a.m. EST credit score: NASA |
At the moment’s occasions mark the primary time a rocket has roared to life at Pad 39A because the last flight of the house shuttle programme in July 2011.
Simply eight minutes after launch, the rocket’s expended first stage fell again to Earth, fired its engines, earlier than efficiently touchdown upright for the second time at SpaceX’s Touchdown Zone-1 – round 15 kilometers south of Launch Advanced 39.
The car will arrive on the house station on early on Monday, February 22 carrying science analysis, crew provides and {hardware} to the orbiting laboratory in help of the Expedition 50 and 51 crews.
Among the many investigations are experiments with potential to struggle human illness and a brand new autonomous spacecraft docking expertise for testing.
From the station’s Cupola, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough alongside European Area Company astronaut Thomas Pesquet will seize Dragon with the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm-2(Grapple is scheduled at 6 a.m.) earlier than flight controllers in Mission Management in Houston berth Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Concord module a number of hours later.
At the moment’s launch marks the start of the tenth Dragon resupply ship to fly to the Worldwide Area Station and the primary business flight from Pad-39A.
Dragon was initially scheduled to launch a day earlier on February 18, however an issue with the positioning of the car’s second stage engine nozzle led to an abort at T-13 seconds.
Simply two days after Dragon’s arrival to the station, the Russian Progress 66 resupply craft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:58 a.m. EST on February 22 to ship meals, gasoline and provides to the Worldwide Area Station, adopted by handbook docking on Friday morning.
