Tomorrow is a big day for the folks at SpaceX and NASA. SpaceX’s Dragon space capsule will be launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station tomorrow, October 7, with the intention of carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station. The launch of the Dragon capsule marks the first time cargo has been transported to the ISS in an unmanned, private, America-made spacecraft.
In other words, this is a pretty big launch. The Dragon capsule will leave Earth attached to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 8:35 PM EST time tomorrow evening, and should arrive at the International Space Station on Wednesday, October 10. NASA officials and SpaceX founder Elon Musk met today to give the mission the greenlight for launch.
Once it’s been attached to the ISS, the Dragon capsule will spend a couple weeks in orbit before undocking on October 28 and heading back to Earth. When it splashes down in the Pacific, it will be carrying around 1,400 pounds of experiment supplies and ISS hardware that needs to be returned to NASA. This is the first of 12 planned cargo transport missions that will use the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket.
If you’re interested in watching this liftoff, SPACE.com says that NASA will be broadcasting the launch through its television channel. If you don’t get NASA TV, you can watch a live stream of the event on NASA TV’s website. Everything should go according to plan tomorrow – NASA says there’s a 60% chance of good weather for the launch – but if the launch needs to be delayed for some reason, NASA and SpaceX will be trying it again on October 8 and October 9. Keep it tuned to SlashGear for more information, because we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on tomorrow’s Dragon launch.
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SpaceX Dragon capsule set to launch for ISS tomorrow is written by SlashGear.
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