SpaceX Targets New Dragon Launch for October 7

Officials at the Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) announce that the company is targeting the launch of its first resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for Sunday, October 7.

SpaceX will use its Falcon 9 medium rocket to launch the unmanned Dragon space capsule, a spacecraft that has already proven it can conduct an orbital resupply flight earlier this year. This will be the first mission carried out under the NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.

This contract, signed a few years ago by NASA and SpaceX, is worth $1.6 billion, and calls for the launch of 12 Dragon spacecraft over the next 5 years or so. The company is using Space Launch Complex 40, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, as a base of operations.

If the mission cannot launch on October 7, then another launch opportunity is available on October 8.