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\h        NARRATOR: Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif., known as SpaceX, will

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\h        launch a Dragon capsule on one of the

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\h        company's Falcon 9 rockets to perform the first operational cargo resupply mission to the

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\h        International Space Station.

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\h        The astronauts aboard the space station are awaiting more than 1,000 pounds of experiment equipment and supplies

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\h        due to arrive inside the Dragon capsule in the next few days.

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\h        This will be the first of 12 such missions for SpaceX and the first operational mission for an American cargo

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\h        craft since the space shuttle fleet retired in 2011. The station is also supplied by cargo ships

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\h        from Russia, Europe and Japan.

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\h        The flight comes four months after the company completed a milestone mission that saw a similar Dragon capsule

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\h        grappled and linked to the station, becoming the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to do so.

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\h        This mission, called CRS-1, places nearly identical demands on the American-made Dragon and its Falcon 9

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\h        launcher.

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\h        The Falcon's nine first stage engines will lift the Dragon spacecraft off the launch pad and

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\h        into the upper atmosphere.

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\h        The first stage will fall away and the second stage's single engine will fire to place the Dragon in a

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\h        193-mile by 212-mile-high orbit that will set Dragon on course to catch up to the station.

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\h        The SpaceX capsule will not be carrying any people, only cargo. When it gets in close to the

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\h        station three days after launch, astronauts onboard the orbiting laboratory will use the robotic

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\h        arm to grapple it and maneuver it to an empty port.

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\h        Shortly after, the astronauts will remove a freezer for scientific samples, along with other supplies,

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\h        from the Dragon.

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\h        They will place more than 2,000 pounds of used equipment and completed scientific samples inside the

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\h        Dragon for a safe return to Earth.

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\h        After three weeks at the station, the Dragon will be grappled again by the robotic arm and

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\h        released onto a path so SpaceX controllers can guide it back to Earth.