SpaceX cargo ship blasts off to ISS
CAPE CANAVERAL – A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule successfully reached orbit Friday, then overcame an early thruster glitch to set up a Sunday morning rendezvous with the International Space Station.
SpaceX later reported an apparent breakthrough in its effort to develop a reusable rocket, saying that its Falcon 9 booster had steered itself to a soft ocean landing, an experiment that had been given low odds of success.
"Data upload from tracking plane shows landing in Atlantic was good!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.
The Falcon 9 blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 3:25 p.m. on the mission's second launch attempt.
A launch had appeared unlikely as storms rolled through earlier in the day, but conditions improved late in the countdown.
The 208-foot rocket rumbled from its pad with 1.3 million pounds of thrust and could be heard well after it disappeared into overcast skies.
Packed with nearly 5,000 pounds of station supplies and science experiments, the Dragon deployed 10 minutes later, and could be seen through a rocket camera floating away into darkness.
A problem quickly arose when a valve feeding two thruster pods failed to respond, but Musk said a backup valve came through to resolve the issue.
Space station astronauts plan to grapple the Dragon with a robotic arm around 7:15 a.m. Sunday and attach it to a docking port.
"We're looking forward to all the research coming up on Dragon," said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's human spaceflight programs.
As for the Falcon 9 booster, Musk initially said waves as high as 20 feet prevented a recovery boat from getting near the splashdown zone at least 250 miles down range from Cape Canaveral, and those conditions made it less likely the booster landed intact.
But early data showed the rocket's first stage – equipped for the first time with landing legs – survived the period of highest aerodynamic stress and was not rolling, a problem that scuttled a recovery attempt last year.
"Even though we probably won't get the stage back, I think we're really starting to connect the dots of what's needed," he said during a press conference.
Later on Twitter, he reported that tracking plane data appeared to confirm a successful splashdown. He said Falcon 9 flight computers continued to transmit data for eight seconds after reaching the water, stopping when the booster tipped over.
Musk said several boats were battling the heavy seas to see if the rocket stage could be recovered.
The recovery attempt was the latest step in SpaceX's effort to develop a booster that can return to land and be flown again, something that could dramatically lower launch costs.
SpaceX may try another water landing during the company's next Cape launch in four to six weeks, when commercial satellites are the payload, and Musk hopes to return a booster to land before the end of the year.
Friday's launch helped settle when station astronauts will perform a spacewalk to replace a failed computer relay box outside the outpost. That work is now scheduled Wednesday.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com.