SpaceX: To infinity and beyond, or at least the International Space Station for now

33 photos

UPDATE: Today at 9:56 a.m. eastern time, the SpaceX Dragon capsule was grabbed by a robotic arm from the International Space Station about 250 miles above northwest Australia. The Dragon is carrying 1,200 pounds of cargo for the Space Station crew including food, clothing and science experiments, one of which originated from Maryland’s own Paul Warren, an 11th-grader at Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head.

Led by CEO, and PayPal founder, Elon Musk, SpaceX is now the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. With its successful launch on Tuesday and subsequent docking later today, the Falcon 9/Dragon capsule has ushered in a new era in space travel now that NASA has retired its fleet of space shuttles.


Starting below at photo 12, take a look back to April 2010 with President Obama’s visit to SpaceX and trace the progression up to the launch earlier this week.

SpaceX launches rocket to International Space Station
By: Scott Dance / Baltimore Sun

Space Exploration Technologies is vying to be the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, and its mission got off to a successful start with a launch this morning.

A Dragon spacecraft launched from the company’s launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 3:44 a.m. Tuesday. It will soon begin a series of tests in space to determine if it can indeed dock with the space station.

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