KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with cargo and supplies for International Space Station crew lifted off from Florida on Thursday evening.
- SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
- Rocket is carrying a Dragon capsule with cargo, supplies for ISS
- Company's 1st-stage booster landed successfully at Landing Zone 1
- Get more space coverage
- WATCH: Watch live stream of launch ▼
The rocket lifted off at 6:01 p.m. from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The chance of favorable weather was estimated to be only 30 percent earlier Thursday, but conditions improved as the day progressed.
The rocket is carrying a Dragon cargo capsule with 5,500 pounds of supplies and science experiments onboard, including Nickelodeon's famous green slime, which astronauts will use to demonstrate the basic principles of fluid flow in microgravity.
The capsule also is includes a tribute to the Apollo 11 crew, who 50 years ago this week splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after becoming the first people to walk on the moon. There's an "Apollo 50th" logo printed on the side of the cargo capsule.
NASA also sent up another docking adapter, which will be installed on the ISS. It will allow two spacecraft to hook up to it at the same time. The agency says it's good practice for when astronauts return to the moon on Artemis missions in the coming years.
"(We're) flushing anything out in low-Earth orbit before we are out trying to rendezvous at the moon or docking at the moon. So it's not just the science but practicing how the systems work," said Bill Spetch, NASA's deputy manager for the ISS.
This is the third visit to the ISS for this particular Dragon capsule. If all goes well, it will arrive early Saturday morning.
SpaceX brought the first stage booster back for a touchdown on Landing Zone 1, and people who live in east Central Florida could hear a loud sonic boom around eight minutes after the launch.
The next scheduled launch from Florida's Space Coast is set for August 3 at 6:50 p.m. ET. Space X will be sending up an Israeli company's communications satellite.