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SpaceX set to launch rocket to International Space Station

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SpaceX is set to usher in a new era for NASA’s space flight program when a towering white rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and heads to the International Space Station on a resupply mission.

If successful, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, will be the first private company to resupply the space station on a contracted mission for NASA. The company has a $1.6-billion contract to carry out 12 such cargo missions for the space agency in the coming years.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set to blast off Sunday at 5:35 p.m. PDT from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral carrying its Dragon capsule packed with 1,000 pounds of food, experiments and supplies.

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The launch will be webcast on NASA TV beginning at 4 p.m. PDT and in the video stream above, which is provided by SpaceX.

According to the latest report, there is a 60% chance the weather will be clear enough for launch.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has had three launches with its Falcon 9 rocket -- all of them successful. In May, the company performed a successful demonstration mission to the space station, showing NASA that it could do the job.

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“I’m still quite nervous about it because it’s just our second mission to the station,” Elon Musk, SpaceX’s 41-year-old billionaire founder and chief executive, said in an interview last week. “We’re hoping that this mission goes as smoothly as the last one.”

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