SpaceX cargo capsule successfully received by space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 12 (UPI) — The main objective of the most recent SpaceX launch was successfully achieved early Monday. The robotic arm of the International Space Station was able to safely receive the cargo capsule launched by the private aerospace company on Saturday.

The Dragon capsule was blasted into space atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. But while the cargo capsule survived the launch from Cape Canaveral, the first stage of the rocket wasn’t so lucky. Engineers had hoped to land the rocket back on a target platform in the Atlantic. Impressively, the rocket hit the target. But it’s entry was too fast, and the rocket was destroyed.

Reusable rocket technology is a vital part of SpaceX’s strategy to dominate the private aerospace industry. The ability to repurpose the majority of the Falcon 9 rocket components, launch after launch, would boost the company’s profits tremendously.

While the latest experiment was ultimately a failure, the company has been getting closer and closer with each attempt. CEO Elon Musk expressed satisfaction with the oh-so-close effort.

Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2015

The newly attached cargo capsule has already been repositioned from the grasp of the robotic arm of the space station’s outpost onto Earth-facing port of the main Harmony module. Now that it is secure, its contents — some 5,200 pounds of food, spare parts, tools, equipment and scientific research materials — will be unloaded.

Finally, after spending a month affixed to the space station, the ISS astronauts will load garbage and completed scientific experiments onto the capsule and release it back to Earth, where it is expected to splash safely into the Pacific Ocean and be retrieved.

The latest cargo launch is the fifth of SpaceX’s scheduled 12 missions, as part of the company’s $1.6 billion contract with NASA.