Video: Time lapse of ATV’s final departure from ISS

Officials from NASA and SpaceX briefed the media on Monday’s scheduled launch of a commercial Dragon spacecraft on an automated resupply mission to the International Space Station. It will be the 12th SpaceX cargo flight to the research outpost.

With a thundering, sky-lighting predawn blastoff from Cape Canaveral, a Falcon 9 rocket fired into orbit early Saturday with a Dragon cargo capsule in pursuit of the International Space Station. Minutes later, the rocket’s first stage booster fell from the sky and executed a pinpoint propulsive landing just offshore, setting the stage for another resupply mission for NASA this summer using the same vehicle.

One job deemed essential by the European Space Agency coronavirus pandemic involves shepherding the BepiColombo spacecraft through a high-speed flyby of planet Earth next month, an immovable event on the $1.8 billion mission’s seven-year journey to Mercury.