WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A private capsule is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on a cargo mission on Oct. 7, U.S. space agency NASA announced Thursday.
The SpaceX's robotic Dragon spacecraft is set to blast off atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:34 p.m. EDT on Oct. 7 (0034 Oct. 8 GMT).
This will be the first of 12 contracted flights by SpaceX to resupply the space station and marks the second trip by a Dragon to the station, following a successful demonstration mission in May.
Dragon will be carrying about 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of supplies. Much of the gear will support the 166 different scientific investigations planned during the station's current Expedition 33. It will return about 330 kilograms of scientific materials.
Until their retirement last summer, U.S. space shuttles carried most of the gear and many of the astronauts to the space station. Since then, American astronauts have had to rely on Russian capsules for rides. European, Japanese and Russian supply ships have been delivering cargo.
NASA is looking to the private sector, in this post-shuttle era, to get American astronauts launching again from U.S. soil. It will be at least four to five years before SpaceX or any other private operator is capable of flying astronauts.
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