Atterrissage de Falcon 9

SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying crew supplies and station hardware launches from Cape Canaveral bound for the International Space Station. SHOWS: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (JULY 18, 2016) (NASA TV - MUST COURTESY NASA / FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) 1. VARIOUS OF ROCKET LAUNCHING FROM PAD, ROCKET ENTERING SPACE 2. VARIOUS OF ROCKET FLYING 3. PEOPLE WATCHING IN MISSION CONTROL ROOM 4. VARIOUS OF ROCKET FLYING 5. VARIOUS OF ROCKET''S MAIN SECTION LANDING ON GROUND 6. PEOPLE WATCHING AND APPLAUDING IN MISSION CONTROL ROOM 7. ROCKET''S MAIN SECTION STANDING ON GROUND IN SPACE (JULY 18, 2016) (NASA TV - MUST COURTESY NASA / FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) 8. DRAGON SEPARATING FROM 2ND STAGE 9. VARIOUS OF DRAGON IN SPACE STORY: Elon Musk''s SpaceX made a successful second attempt on Monday (July 18) to deliver one of two docking rings to the International Space Station, a crucial step in enabling U.S. commercial space taxis to ferry astronauts to the orbiting lab, NASA said. Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, tried last year to deliver a ring for the first time, but the equipment was destroyed during a launch accident. SpaceX''s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship launched at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. About 2.5 minutes after lift-off, the rocket''s main section separated, turned around and landed on the ground a few miles from the launch site. A second docking ring is due to be delivered in 2017, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, said. Owned and operated by Musk, the technology entrepreneur who founded Tesla Motors Inc, SpaceX is developing rockets that can be refurbished and re-used, potentially slashing launch costs. So far, it has successfully landed a Falcon on the ground once and on an ocean platform in three out of its last four attempts. SpaceX intends to launch one of its recovered rockets as early as autumn of this year, SpaceX said. Landing the rocket is a secondary goal. The main mission is placing the Dragon capsule into orbit and sending it on a two-day trip to the station, a $100 billion laboratory orbiting about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. The capsule holds nearly 5,000 lbs (2,268 kg) of food, supplies and equipment, including a miniature DNA sequencer, the first to fly in space. The metal docking ring, built by Boeing Co, is 7.8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter. After its attachment to a berthing port on the station, it will serve as a parking space for commercial spaceships under development by SpaceX and Boeing. The manned craft are scheduled to begin test flights next year. Since the U.S. space agency retired its fleet of space shuttles five years ago, the United States has depended on Russia to ferry astronauts to and from the station at a cost of more than $70 million per person.