A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying more than two tons of supplies is on its way to the International Space Station after a successful launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
After its 4:10 p.m. blastoff, the Falcon 9 booster flew itself from space back down to a ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, but hit it too hard and broke apart.
"Ascent successful," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported on Twitter. "Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival."
The experimental attempt to land the 14-story rocket stage on the unpiloted "drone ship," the company's second try since January, is part of SpaceX's efforts to develop reusable rockets that could lower launch costs.
Musk later added that the rocket stage appeared to have landed on the ship but then tipped over because of too much sideways motion, indicating that SpaceX came closer to success.
Musk had put 50-50 odds on the attempt. Another company executive had predicted as high as an 80 percent chance of success, but Musk clarified that that improvement would happen throughout the year.
The Dragon is on course to reach the space station and its six-person crew early Friday, where the spacecraft will meet about 250 miles above the planet.
We're getting an espresso machine delivered on @spacex, and it's called #ISSpresso! pic.twitter.com/ltNAlE2P5J— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) April 10, 2015
Two of the crew members, American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko, recently began a yearlong stay on the outpost. The Dragon is carrying a month's worth of food, spare parts and science experiments supporting about 40 investigations, including a study of bone loss in mice. An Italian espresso machine is among the more unusual payloads. The Dragon is expected to stay docked to the station until May 21. It is the only vehicle available today that can return significant amounts of cargo to the ground.
The resupply mission is SpaceX's sixth of 15 under a roughly $2 billion NASA contract, and was the 17th flight of its Falcon 9 rocket. The mission launched on its second attempt, after thunderstorms scrubbed a first try Monday. SpaceX hopes to launch a communications satellite from Cape Canaveral before the end of the month. Then in early May, the company plans to test a key system on the Dragon, it is designing, to fly NASA astronauts. The so-called "pad abort" test will fire Dragon thrusters that would enable the capsule and its crew to escape from a failing rocket.
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