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3nd LD: SpaceX launches ISS resupply mission from historic moonshot pad, rocket lands on ground.

Xinhua, February 20, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. space firm SpaceX launched its 10th cargo mission to the International Space Station on Sunday morning from U.S. space agency NASA's historic moon pad for the first time.

A Falcon 9 lifted off on time at about 09:39 a.m. EST (1439 GMT) from U.S. space agency NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first time, NASA TV showed.

"...3, 2, 1, Ignition! And Liftoff of the Falcon 9 to the space station, on the first commercial launch from Kennedy Space Center's historic 39A," said NASA launch commentator George Diller.

Video from the scene showed hundreds of space program enthusiasts turned out in force to witness the first launch off LC-39A since the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off in July 2011 on the program's final flight. The launch pad was best known as the launch site for the Apollo 11 mission, which sent the first humans to the surface of the moon, as well as numerous space shuttle missions.

The launch went smoothly on Sunday.

The Falcon 9's first and second stages separated about less than 3 minutes into Sunday's launch. As the first stage flew back for its touchdown, the second stage continued to power Dragon to orbit.

Approximately 8 minutes after the initial lift-off, the California-based company successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on ground again.

"Baby, came back," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk posted on Instagram, along with a photo of the rocket landing on ground at LZ-1 on the Florida coast.

Right on schedule, the Dragon spacecraft, which is carrying about 5,500 pounds of equipment and experiments to the International Space Station, completed deployment of its two solar arrays about 13 minutes after launch and is flying free in its preliminary orbit to catch up with the International Space Station.

"Dragon is on its way to the International Space Station. Capture by @Space_Station crew set for early Wednesday morning," SpaceX then posted on Twitter.

"This is important for Kennedy," space historian Roger Launius, the former associate director for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, told online media Gizmodo. " (Kennedy) has been spaceport USA throughout the space age, more than 60 years now. The fact that you've got a company (putting) money into rehabbing an existing facility means you've got work for the foreseeable future."

The liftoff was originally scheduled for Saturday (Feb. 18), but SpaceX called that attempt off in a last minite to investigate an issue with the upper stage of its Falcon 9 rocket.

According to NASA, the launch attempt has been scrubbed because of the "thrust vector control system issue" that developed late in Saturday's countdown.

This is the first SpaceX launch from Florida since a Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on September 1, 2016. The accident during prelaunch testing heavily damaged that pad. SpaceX turned to the LC-39A.

SpaceX did launch a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on January 14, 2017, but this will the first from the Cape since the blast. Endit