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SpaceX launches Dragon to space station as rocket targets but fails at first landing [i]The launch of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station had potential to put a new, historic spin on the adage "what goes up, must come down." Instead, in the words of SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk, it was "close, but no cigar." Nine minutes after lifting off at 4:47 a.m. EST (0909 GMT) on Saturday (Jan. 10) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Dragon entered orbit. The launch signaled the start of CRS-5, the fifth station cargo run under SpaceX's 12-flight, $1.6 billion contract with NASA. At about the same time that the gumdrop-shaped capsule entered space, its 208-foot-tall (63 meter) booster's spent first stage was anticipated back on Earth. But unlike just about every other rocket's first stage in history, this rocket segment wasn't falling to its destruction. It was "boosting back" in an experimental engine-powered maneuver that if successful, would have left it poised on a floating platform off the coast of Florida. "Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard," Musk reported on Twitter...[/i]
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