Space Dragon truck was successfully launched to the ISS – TASS

NEW YORK, Jan. 11. / Correspondent. Tass Bekrenev /. Cargo ship Dragon, created by the US company SpaceX, was successfully launched on Saturday with the US Air Force base located near the launch site at Cape Canaveral (Florida) .For O “truck” was used to orbit launch vehicle Falcon 9.

SpaceX engineers were going to keep it the first stage, which had previously always fallen into the Atlantic Ocean. It was assumed that the exhaust element of the carrier re-including the engine and upright falls on a special sea platform the size of a football field, revealing the landing gear.

However, according to the founder and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk, the landing was hard, and the stage collapsed into several parts. When this has been damaged piece of equipment installed on the platform. “We were close to success, but this time to” catch “stage did not work” – wrote a mask in his microblog on Twitter.

According to experts, in the history of space research, such an experiment was conducted for the first time. SpaceX is planning to re-use the first and second stages of the Falcon 9, which will significantly reduce the cost of space launches.

Dragon will have to dock with the ISS on January 12. The unit will bring the station more than 2.5 tons of useful goods, including food, equipment and materials for scientific experiments. In particular, the space for the first time will be delivered to the new scientific instrument for the study of aerosol pollution appearing in the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, as well as industrial emissions. As noted by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the aerosol particles may pose a risk to human health and the impact on the Earth’s climate.

About a month later Dragon – the world’s only reusable cargo ship – go way back. On Earth, he will deliver the results of scientific experiments and various equipment. Under contract with NASA worth $ 1.6 billion already committed four Dragon “regular” flight to the ISS, and must fly back eight times.