Space X's Dragon Spacecraft Sent to International Space Station

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft left for the International Space Station with 5000 pounds of NASA cargo on Friday.

The craft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The cargo includes spacewalking suits and hardware for various scientific experiments.

Space X develops and manufactures spacecrafts and rockets. The company was founded in 2002.

This is the third such delivery of cargo by Space X. The company has a 12-flight, $1.6 billion contract with NASA, nbcnews reported.

The equipment sent for scientific research includes the VEGGIE system, which will help ISS scientists try to grow plants in space. Another system called OPALS will test whether or not data can be sent from Earth to space via lasers.

"SpaceX is delivering important research experiments and cargo to the space station," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, according to a news release. "The diversity and number of new experiments is phenomenal. The investigations aboard Dragon will help us improve our understanding of how humans adapt to living in space for long periods of time and help us develop technologies that will enable deep space exploration."

Poor weather conditions almost canceled the launch. However, brief windows of clear skies helped NASA and Space X scientists successfully blast off the craft into orbit.

"Looks like everything's good on Dragon," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said during a news conference. "I'm feeling pretty excited, this is a happy day," Musk said.

The Dragon spacecraft will be docked at the International Space Station for about a month before being sent back to earth. The craft will land in California with about 3,000 pounds of cargo including non-essential equipment.

Apart from the cargo, the company has also a system that will allow reuse of Falcon 9, nbcnews reported.