spacetoday.net: Dragon ready for first cargo mission to ISS

Posted: Sun, Oct 7, 2012, 10:12 AM ET (1412 GMT)
Falcon 9 on pad before CRS-1 launch (NASA/KSC)

A Dragon spacecraft loaded with nearly a ton of equipment and supplies is cleared to launch Sunday night. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8:35 pm EDT Sunday (0035 GMT Monday) in an instantaneous launch window. There are no technical issues with the launch and forecasts call for a 60% chance of acceptable weather at launch time. Dragon is flying a mission designated CRS-1, the first of twelve commercial resupply missions NASA has contracted with SpaceX. The Dragon will be bringing experiments and related equipment, along with some other supplies, to the station; it will bring back items from the station a few weeks later. The Falcon 9 is also carrying a prototype next-generation satellite for ORBCOMM, an operator of a constellation of low Earth orbit communications satellites.