Jason 3 Mission Science Briefing

A SpaceX-owned Dragon cargo craft left the International Space Station on Friday and flew back to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with a dozen mice and more than 3,000 pounds of experiment specimens and space hardware.

These photos show SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with a previously-flown first stage booster, sitting on its launch pad Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California ahead of the scheduled liftoff of the Radarsat Constellation Mission.

In addition to carrying an Air Force electric propulsion thruster test, a materials research investigation sponsored by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will be flying aboard the X-37B miniature spaceplane later this month.