spacetoday.net: Falcon 9 launches ISS cargo ship

Posted: Mon, Oct 8, 2012, 5:50 AM ET (0950 GMT)
Falcon 9 launch of CRS-1 mission (J. Foust)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully placed a Dragon cargo spacecraft into orbit Sunday night despite an anomaly with one of the rocket's engines. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:35 pm EDT Sunday (0035 GMT Monday) and placed a Dragon spacecraft into its planned orbit. Dragon is flying a mission designated CRS-1, the first of twelve commercial resupply missions NASA has contracted with SpaceX. The Dragon is bringing experiments and related equipment, along with some other supplies, to the station; it will bring back items from the station a few weeks later. The launch also placed into orbit a prototype next-generation satellite for ORBCOMM, an operator of a constellation of low Earth orbit communications satellites. While NASA and SpaceX declared the launch a success, SpaceX did reveal that one of the nine engines on the Falcon 9's first stage suffered an "anomaly" during ascent. The company provided no other details about the problem Sunday night, but video shows debris falling from the vehicle about 80 seconds after liftoff. The Falcon 9 does have an "engine out" capability that allows it to lose one engine and still carry out its mission.