SpaceX launches rocket from historic NASA pad in Florida
Source: Reuters
By Irene Klotz | CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.
A SpaceX Falcon rocket blasted off on Sunday from a Florida launch pad once used to send NASA astronauts to the moon, a step forward for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and his company's goal of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station.
The 229-foot tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 soared off a seaside launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:39 a.m. ET carrying a Dragon cargo ship bound for the station.
Nine minutes after blastoff, the main section of the rocket flew back to a landing pad at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the eighth successful touchdown for Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
"Baby came back," Musk wrote on Twitter, celebrating the re-landing, which came a day after SpaceX decided to delay the mission 13 seconds before launch due to concerns about the steering system in the rocket's upper stage, the company said.
Sunday's launch was the first for SpaceX from Launch Complex 39A, originally built for the 1960s-era Apollo moon program and later repurposed for the space shuttles.
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Yeah man!!!!!!!!!!
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)Just yesterday there were concerns that these delays will mess with the space station schedules for astronauts.
question everything
(47,271 posts)even against all the anti science in Washington.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)We're supposedly able to see takeoffs, or at least the ascending vapor trails, at the space center across the Florida peninsula from us, but haven't caught one yet. This morning the clouds hadn't burned off yet. But it was a success without us, so great.
N77VG
(65 posts)is just as cool and exciting as the launch! I keep wondering why NASA never figured out how to do that.
fleabiscuit
(4,542 posts)Welcome to DU
Baclava
(12,047 posts)cool as hell