We have liftoff! At 11:17 a.m. EST, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the uncrewed cargo Dragon spacecraft on its journey to the International Space Station for SpaceX’s 21st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-21) mission.
The first launch of the company’s upgraded cargo version of Dragon, the spacecraft can now carry more science payloads to and from the orbiting laboratory. Scheduled to arrive at the space station tomorrow, Dec. 7, Dragon will autonomously dock to the station’s Harmony module at about 1:30 p.m. EST, delivering critical supplies, equipment, and materials to support a variety of science research and experiments that will be done in a microgravity environment.