A second-hand SpaceX rocket has blasted off to the International Space Station, carrying a robot with artificial intelligence and other station supplies.
The shipment – packed into a Dragon capsule that is also recycled – should reach the station on Monday.
This marked SpaceX’s fastest reflight of a rocket booster. The same first-stage booster launched the planet-hunting TESS satellite in April, while the capsule flew in 2016.
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The Dragon will deliver the robot Cimon, which standsÌýfor Crew Interactive Mobile Companion and is pronounced Simon.
The round, 3D-printed German Space Agency robot, which is slightly bigger than a basketball, will assist German astronaut Alexander Gerst with science experiments.
Robot passenger
Cimon will remain indefinitely on the orbiting lab, where it will continuallyÌýbe updated via IBM, which provided its AI software.
Also on board the Dragon capsule are 20 brown female mice, half of them genetically identical from one strain or family, and the other half identical from another family.
Northwestern University researchers want to study the bacteria in the animals’ guts and compare them to their identical sisters on the ground.
They did the same with identical twins and former astronautsÌýScott and Mark KellyÌýduring Scott’s year-long space station mission a few years ago.
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