NASA SpaceX Dragon Launch: Elon Musk and NASA Partner For New Flight to ISS

Impact

NASA announced it’d be launching its next cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station on March 1 at 10:10 a.m. (EST), from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida — with the collaboration of Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). 

SpaceX's Dragon capsule will be filled with 1,200 pounds of supplies for the space station crew. In addition, Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn of NASA will use the station's robot arm to grapple Dragon. They will attach the Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module for a few weeks while astronauts unload cargo — before loading experiment samples for return to Earth. 

Dragon is scheduled to return to Earth March 25 for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California. It will be bringing back more than 2,300 pounds of experiment samples and equipment.