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SpaceX Lands On A Barge in the Ocean While A Dragon Flies To Orbit

By Keith Cowing
April 8, 2016
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SpaceX Lands On A Barge in the Ocean While A Dragon Flies To Orbit
Falcon 9 Stage After Landing
SpaceX

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 this afternoon. The rocket’s first stage returned from space and landed on an automated drone ship offshore a few minutes later. Meanwhile, the second stage successfully placed a Dragon spacecraft into orbit.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is delivering almost 7,000 pounds of cargo, including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), to the orbital laboratory following its launch on a Falcon 9 rocket at 4:43 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The mission is SpaceX’s eighth cargo delivery through NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. Dragon’s cargo will support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations taking place on the space station during Expeditions 47 and 48.

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Liftoff

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Moments After Liftoff

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First Stage Pushes Falcon 9 Into Space

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First Stage Starts To Fall Back To Earth While Second Stage Pushes Toward Orbit

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Second Stage Engine Firing

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First Stage Lands On Automated Drone Ship

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Dragon Deploys Its Solar Arrays

Keith Cowing

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

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