The American private company SpaceX has successfully launched that night from the Cape Canaveral base, the Falcon-9 rocket with the Dragon ship. This will provide a cargo for the crew of the International Space Station.

"Dragan" carries about 2.5 tons of cargo, including food and materials for scientific experiments, to astronauts. The Dragon cargo capsule, meanwhile, set off after the space station carrying 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies including an automated 3D cardiac tissue "printer," research by Goodyear that could lead to improved tires, refurbished spacesuit components and a docking mechanism to replace one lost in a 2015 Falcon 9 launch failure.

This will be his 18th mission to the International Space Station.

The cargo ship will return to Earth in about 4 weeks, and will also carry cargo.