SpaceX launches cargo mission
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E-mail Xinhua, April 15, 2015
SpaceX, a private U.S. firm, on Tuesday afternoon launched its sixth cargo mission to the International Space Station, while failing another attempt to land the spent first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
![SpaceX, a private U.S. firm, on Tuesday afternoon launched its sixth cargo mission to the International Space Station, while failing another attempt to land the spent first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. [Photo/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20150415/001aa0ba3c161698035804.jpg "SpaceX, a private U.S. firm, on Tuesday afternoon launched its sixth cargo mission to the International Space Station, while failing another attempt to land the spent first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. [Photo/Xinhua]") |
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SpaceX, a private U.S. firm, on Tuesday afternoon launched its sixth cargo mission to the International Space Station, while failing another attempt to land the spent first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. [Photo/Xinhua] |
The California-based company's Dragon cargo ship, filled with more than 4,300 pounds (1,950 kg) of supplies and payloads, lifted off at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT) aboard the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the state of Florida.
The world, however, may be more interested in the so-called precision-landing of the Falcon 9's first stage, which will be conducted after its separation from the second stage as part of a reusable-rocket test. The first stage, however, has a hard landing again.
"Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted. "Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing."
SpaceX first tried the rocket landing on the company's autonomous spaceport drone ship, now named Just Read the Instructions, in January, but the attempt ended in a crash on the boat because the rocket's steering fins ran out of hydraulic fluid.
The company intended to go for it again in February, during the launch of a satellite called Deep Space Climate Observatory, but high waves scrubbed the attempt.
At a prelaunch press conference Sunday, SpaceX vice president Hans Koenigsmann put the chances of success this time at 75 percent or 80 percent, but his boss, Musk, said Monday the odds were still less than 50 percent.
Despite the failure, Koenigsmann said at Tuesday's post-launch press conference that the company is able to "make it work on the barge" in the end.
"It's just a matter of finding the right parameters, finding the right method to do this, I don't think there is something fundamental," he said.
The mission to deliver cargo to the space station was unaffected. If all goes as planned, the Dragon cargo ship will arrive at the space station Friday for an expected five-week visit.
"We watched live!" Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti wrote on Twitter. "Amazing to think that in 3 days #Dragon will be knocking on our door."
One of the interesting cargo on this run is an espresso machine, dubbed ISSpresso, for Cristoforetti and other space station crews to make tea, coffee, broth or other hot beverages.
"Crew members may enjoy an ISSpresso beverage using specially designed space cups as part of the Capillary Beverage study -- an improvement to the standard drinking pouch with a straw," U.S. space agency NASA said in a statement.
The agency said proving this technology in microgravity "may lead to new or improved brewing methods."
This is the sixth operational cargo delivery mission of SpaceX to the space station. The company's 1.6-billion-U.S.-dollar contract with NASA requires at least a dozen cargo delivery flights in all.
Besides SpaceX, NASA has also signed a deal with another private company called Orbital Sciences Corp. to supply the space station with cargo. Orbital's first two flights went smoothly, but the third one failed when the company's Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff in late October.
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