In Photos: SpaceX's 1st Reused Dragon Spacecraft Blasts Off

Rocket’s-Eye View of the Ascent

SpaceX

The view from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket shortly after liftoff on June 3, 2017.

Falcon 9 Stage Separation

SpaceX

The first and second stages of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket separate about 2.5 minutes into flight on June 3, 2017.

Double Duty for the Falcon 9

SpaceX

The first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket returns to Earth for a landing (left) while the second stage continues carrying the Dragon resupply vessel toward the International Space Station on June 3, 2017.

Falcon 9 Comes in for a Landing

SpaceX

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket comes in for a landing at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station after launching the company’s Dragon cargo capsule to orbit on June 3, 2017.

Falcon 9 Landing: Double View

SpaceX

Two views of the Falcon 9's first stage landing on June 3, 2017.

Coming Down

SpaceX

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket comes in for a successful landing on June 3, 2017.

Touchdown for the Falcon 9

SpaceX

The Falcon 9 first stage touches down at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 3, 2017.

Falcon 9 First Stage Landing

SpaceX

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket comes down for a successful landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 3, 2017.

SpaceX CRS-11 Landing Long-Exposure

SpaceX

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket stage is seen safely on its Florida landing pad with the trail of its fiery descent visible in this amazing long-exposure photo taken June 3, 2017 after the booster launched a Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA.

Touchdown for the Falcon 9

SpaceX

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket touches down at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Landing Zone 1 on June 3, 2017.

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.