SpaceX Launches Rocket From Historic NASA Moon Shot Pad
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- In September, it went up in flames. Yesterday, it went up as planned.
Alex DeMetrick reports, SpaceX is flying high again.
The civilian company successfully launched two tons of supplies headed to the International Space Station Sunday.
It also landed the Falcon 9's 15-story booster back safely at Cape Canaveral eight minutes later, so it can be used again. That's a feat, the Associated Press reports, that has only been accomplished only twice before.
The cargo capsule, which reached orbit successfully, will hook up with the space station Wednesday and plans to eventually carry astronauts.
"NASA has high hopes that SpaceX as well as Boeing will be able to launch astronauts to and from the space station," says Bill Harwood, CBS News space consultant.
The weekend success follows last September's catastrophic explosion of a Falcon 9.
The launch pad was destroyed and for the first time since the last space shuttle flight in 2011, historic launch pad 39-A was used. The stepping off point for man's journey to the moon in 1969.
SpaceX is the first private company to launch from that pad. A piece of the past giving the present a lift.
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