Yesterday, when in the U.S.A. it was evening, the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral starting the CRS-1 (Cargo Resupply Service 1) mission, the first of 12 missions to send the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with various cargos then return to Earth, again with various cargos.

Last May, SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, a private company founded by Elon Musk, successfully performed a test mission that for the first time brought a private spacecraft to the International Space Station. The successful completion of that test led to the beginning of the CRS-1 mission for NASA and now the Dragon spacecraft is carrying about 450 kg (1,000 pounds) of cargo to its destination, scheduled for the rendez-vous next Wednesday.

Last May test flight had a few delays due to some issues. Simulations and ground tests are essential but when the time comes to actually launch a rocket there may still be something wrong. Over the months, they made some improvements and tonight it seemed that the only problem might be the weather.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off normally but after about a minute and twenty seconds there was a problem with one of its nine Merlin engines, which was turned off. We don’t know exactly what happened as so far SpaceX only stated that there was an anomaly that led to the shutdown of the engine.

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The Falcon 9 rocket uses an enhanced version of the architecture of the Saturn V and Saturn I rockets used in the Apollo program, which were launched successfully even when not all engines worked well being designed for such situations as well. During last night launch, the flight computer kept the other 8 engines burning longer to compensate for the loss of the ninth one.

The mission of the Dragon spacecraft was therefore not affected by the problem with the Falcon 9 rocket engine and about ten minutes after the launch it regularly separated, deployed its solar panels and started a series of maneuvers that next Wednesday will allow it to reach the International Space Station.

This is another historic moment for the space age after the success of the mission of the Dragon spacecraft test last May. In the near future, other private companies are supposed carry out tests of their spacecrafts because SpaceX is the first but not the only company to have a contract with NASA to bring supplies to the International Space Station, a perspective that until a few years ago existed only in science fiction.