SpaceX Falcon 9 fires up ahead of groundbreaking Cargo Dragon launch - Teslarati

SpaceX has successfully fired up a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket for the Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft’s historic launch debut.

Starting with the cargo mission CRS-21, every time we launch a Dragon, there will be two Dragons in space – simultaneously – for extended periods of time.

Orbital firsts aside, CRS-21 will also be the first time in history that a new space station-bound spacecraft (Cargo Dragon 2) debuts on a flight-proven rocket (Falcon 9).

The Falcon 9 booster supporting CRS-21 previously launched SpaceX’s Demo-2 Crew Dragon astronaut launch debut, as well as South Korea’s ANASIS II communications satellite and a batch of 60 Starlink spacecraft.

For NASA, it will be the space agency’s first launch on a twice or thrice-flown Falcon 9 booster, as well as the first time a SpaceX booster with a commercial (non-NASA) launch history has been certified to launch a NASA mission.