Millions of dollars and countless hours were lost when the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule exploded shortly after liftoff Sunday morning.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was carrying a Dragon cargo ship with an estimated 4,000 pounds of replacement food, clothes and science experiments headed to the International Space Station. It is the only space craft that is able to bring research samples back to Earth.

Jeff Goldstein was in charge of 25 student experiments that were being delivered to the space Station.

They involved everything from how ladybugs handle space to micro-gravity's impact on rust.

"It looked like everybody was taking it in stride, but I'm sure that there was a very deep emotional sense of loss in terms of all of that work,” said Jeff Goldstein, center director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.

One of the experiments was replaced after it was originally on Orbital Science's Antares rocket this past fall. That rocket also exploded soon after liftoff, destroying the cargo on board.

"They took it rather well because they've been through this before, and I had them talk to the other student researchers to say look, you know, we're going to survive this, we're going to get through this, you're going to launch it again,” said Goldstein.

Among the cargo destroyed, nearly 1,500 pounds of supplies for ISS astronauts, including food.

NASA said the ISS crew has enough provisions to last them through October, and upcoming cargo deliveries from Russian and Japanese spacecraft will ensure astronauts have enough food and water for several more months.

“You can expect that we will adjust some of our flights here in the future to make sure that we have all the supplies that we need on ISS,” according to NASA.

Lost in the explosion were also a space suit and an important piece of hardware needed for future commercial crew vehicles.

The hardware, an international docking adapter, was supposed to be installed during a spacewalk later this year.

NASA said just like the student experiments, the adapter will be replaced and fly again, one day, to the space station.