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A SpaceX rocket that flew two months ago with a NASA satellite restarted Friday by launching the first robot in orbit with artificial intelligence and other supplies from the station.
The Falcon rocket used took off before dawn. pounds (2,700 kilograms) of goods, including the IA spherical bot named Cimon, genetically identical mice and super caffeinated coffee for the crew of the International Space Station.
The shipment – packed in a dragon capsule also recycled – is expected to arrive at the station on Monday.
This was a particularly magnificent launch, delighting the spectators as the rocket plume spread in the clear sky like a giant halo The full moon and a shining Mars.
SpaceX's Jessica Jensen described the high altitude plume, illuminated against the black sky, as "the space jellyfish coming down after us."
"I was going to say breathtaking, but maybe waking could be a better word," said NASA's Space Station program director, Kirk Shireman.
This marked SpaceX's fastest reflection of a booster. The same first-stage amplifier launched the Tess satellite last April. The capsule, meanwhile, flew in 2016.
Aimed at reducing launch costs by reusing rockets, SpaceX did not recover the booster for another flight and abandoned it in the Atlantic instead. Company Turns to New Enhanced Booster Line
The space station and its six inhabitants sailed 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the South Pacific when the Falcon 9 took off
. Cimon robot, pronounced Simon. Slightly larger than a basketball, the German robot of the German Space Agency, printed in 3D, will badist the German astronaut Alexander Gerst in scientific experiments. IBM has provided the brain of AI. Cimon will remain indefinitely on the laboratory in orbit.
Cimon is the abbreviation of Crew Interactive Mobile Companion. The name also refers to genius engineering in the science fiction tale "Captain Future".
Also on board are two sets of genetically identical brown female mice, or 20 mousetronauts in total. Researchers at Northwestern University want to study the bacteria present in the belly of animals and compare them to their identical sisters in the field. They did the same with former NASA astronauts and identical twins, Scott and Mark Kelly, during Scott's space mission a few years ago.
Grocery stores include ice cream bars, fresh blueberries from Texas, mission control and 60 dried sachets of Death Wish Coffee from the state of New York. A former NASA astronaut helped organize the java delivery of Serena Aunon-Chancellor, a coffee lover. "We like to keep our astronauts super-caffeinated because they work harder," joked Shireman after takeoff
. The new food – especially the treats – is "a huge psychological benefit" when you're stuck with a space menu that repeats itself every eight or nine days, Shireman said. "The crew will open and eat blueberries, drink coffee and eat ice cream, I'm sure, before I know it."
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