SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft lifted off Monday aboard the Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the company’s 12th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station.
The spacecraft took off at 12:31 p.m. Eastern time to deliver at least 6,400 pounds of crew supplies and experiments to the ISS, NASA said Monday.
The rocket’s first stage returned to the firm’s landing zone at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, while the second stage continued to propel the spacecraft into orbit.
Dragon is scheduled to reach the orbiting laboratory Wednesday morning, SpaceX said.
The launch came two months after SpaceX’s reused Dragon capsule took off aboard Falcon 9 as part of the company’s CRS-11 mission.