Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon C2+ spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on May 22, 2012.
NASA / Rick Wetherington, Tim Powers and Tim Terry

Dragon C2+ Lifts Off...Finally! At 12:44 AM, Pacific Daylight Time today, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon C2+ capsule successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. After months of launch delays, Dragon C2+ is finally headed to the International Space Station (ISS)...where Dragon will arrive this Friday, May 25th. This morning's historic moment for human spaceflight was definitely (and obviously) heralded at the SpaceX headquarters based in Hawthorne, California—with more than a thousand SpaceX employees (who stood inside a viewing area right behind the Mission Control Center) cheering and clapping enthusiastically as a projection screen showed Falcon 9 slowly but steadily rising from its pad at CCAFS' Space Launch Complex-40. The applause was even stronger once footage was shown of Dragon C2+'s twin solar arrays flawlessly deploying after the spacecraft separated from its second stage motor in Earth orbit. More applause is expected this Friday, when Dragon will be berthed to the ISS via robotic arm.

A thousand employees at SpaceX Headquarters in California cheer as the Dragon C2+ mission finally launches on May 22, 2012.
SpaceX

Should Dragon successfully berth with the ISS on May 25, it will stay at the outpost till May 31...before departing the space station and re-entering Earth's atmosphere that same day. Like the previous Dragon flight in December, 2010, this capsule will also land and be recovered in the Pacific Ocean—hundreds of miles off the coast of Southern California.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon C2+ spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on May 22, 2012.
NASA / Alan Ault

The engine bell on Falcon 9's second stage motor glows in the dark after igniting several minutes after launch, on May 22, 2012.
SpaceX

The Dragon C2+ spacecraft separates from its second stage motor after successfully reaching Earth orbit, on May 22, 2012.
NASA TV

More than ten minutes after launch, one of Dragon C2+'s twin solar arrays flawlessly unfurls in Earth orbit, on May 22, 2012.
SpaceX

No comments:

Post a Comment