I had an eagle-eye view as the Falcon 9 rose up from
its launchpad, with Dragon leading the way through
the cloud covered sky. Its sound punched through the
wind, letting out a low intense rumble as it headed
for orbit, getting louder and louder with each second
that passed. As the rocket rose higher, its sound started
to fade, until it completely disappeared. The Falcon 9
had performed its job – and it was time for Dragon
to commence its part of the mission. Soon it would
meet up with the ISS for the delivery of supplies and
experiments to the crew.
Fast Facts
The name game:
The Falcon 9 got its name from the Millennium
Falcon – the spacecraft commanded by Han
Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy. The ‘9’ comes
from the nine first-stage Merlin engines that propel
the rocket. Dragon was named after the fictional
character Puff the Magic Dragon because in 2002,
critics thought that the original goals SpaceX had
in mind seemed to exist more in the realm of makebelieve.
It’s only rocket science:
Dragon in orbit during the CRS-2 mission.
Photo: NASA
The arrival of Dragon to the ISS was delayed due to
a minor setback with its oxidizer tanks, but the ground
crews worked quickly to identify the problem, and get it
back on track. On March 3 it was successfully captured
and berthed to the ISS. It delivered 2,300 pounds of
cargo to the residents on board, stayed attached for
22 days, and was then filled with over 3,000 pounds of
cargo to carry home. On March 26, Dragon completed
its mission and returned to Earth. It splashed down in
the Pa