SpaceX Dragon Enters Private Cargo Supply Space

First commercial cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station has finally lifted off. This part of NASA's commercial supply services after retiring the space shuttle program.

The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (Space X) Falcon 9 rocket carrying Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 8:3 p.m EDT Sunday. The Dragon Spacecraft will be guided to the ISS by the robotic arm at 7.22 a.m. Oct.10.

The capsule will spend 18 days attached to the station after which it will head for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California.

"Just over one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we have returned space station cargo resupply missions to U.S. soil and are bringing the jobs associated with this work back to America," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The SpaceX launch tonight marks the official start of commercial resupply missions by American companies operating out of U.S. spaceports like the one right here in Florida."

SpaceX is expected to fly at least 12 cargo missions to the space station. 

Nearly 882 pounds of supplies is being delivered to the orbiting laboratory that includes 260 pounds of crew supplies, 390 pounds of scientific research, 225 pounds of hardware and several pounds of other supplies. Totally, it will return 1,673 pounds of supplies that include 163 pounds of crew supplies, 866 pounds of scientific research and 518 pounds of vehicle hardware and other hardware.

This unique ability to return frozen samples is the first for this flight and will be beneficial to the station's research community.  This capability of returning cargo from space station is critical for supporting scientific research in the orbiting laboratory's microgravity environment that will help in understanding how humans can work safely and thrive in space for longer duration.

According to NASA, these materials that have been launched on Dragon will support experiments in plant cell biology, human biotechnology and various material technology demonstrations.