SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launched Succesfully

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket after a cancelled scheduled lift-off a day prior on February 18, 9:39AM EST due to technical reasons. The launch was livestreamed a few hours ago online with a very overcast morning with light rain and was launched from the historic pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX leased this launch pad from NASA in 2014 and has been modified to support the Falcon 9 rocket architecture.

The Falcon 9 rocket was designed to transport satellites and launched the Dragon spacecraft into low-earth orbit. The launch mission is intended to deliver cargo to the International Space Station for NASA, which will mark SpaceX’s 10th resupply of the ISS and the Dragon is scheduled to arrive at the station on Wednesday which two days later. It will perform a series of burn maneuvers as it navigates towards the station across a period of days hence the delay after deployment. After the stage separation, the first stage Falcon 9 landed at the SpaceX’s landing zone LZ-1 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida without a hitch just as the sun started to break over the cloudy sky.

Prior to the successful February 19 launch, the latest mission faced challenges other than the cancellation a day prior. An explosion in the launchpad damaged the satellite and the rocket back in September 2016 and a June 2015 mission blew up shortly after liftoff.