Feb. 20 (UPI) — SpaceX on Sunday successfully launched and landed its Falcon 9 rocket a day after aborting the mission seconds before launch.
Falcon 9 was carrying the Dragon spacecraft, which successfully detached from Falcon 9’s second stage.
“Falcon 9 first stage has landed at LZ-1,” SpaceX said in a statement. “Dragon confirmed in good orbit.”
SpaceX aborted the launch on Saturday at the T-minus 10 second mark before liftoff due to a second stage thrust vector control issue.
“SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon spacecraft to low-Earth orbit to deliver critical cargo to the International Space Station for NASA,” SpaceX said in a statement prior to launch. “Dragon will separate from Falcon 9’s second stage about 10 minutes after liftoff and attach to the station roughly two days later.”
The launch is SpaceX’s first in Florida since one of their rockets exploded in the summer of 2016. The launch is also SpaceX’s first launch from the historic Launch Complex-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
“Dragon will be filled with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations,” SpaceX said. “Among the investigations are experiments with potential to help fight human disease, monitor climate data, and improve autonomous spacecraft docking with the orbiting laboratory.”
