NEW YORK, July 26. /TASS/. The US SpaceX carrier rocket Falcon 9 with Dragon resupply spacecraft blasted off on Thursday from Cape Canaveral (the US state of Florida) to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch was broadcast live on SpaceX’s website.

The spacecraft was launched at 18:01 local time Thursday (1:01 Moscow time Friday) and is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Saturday. The Dragon resupply ship is carrying about 2.5 tonnes of cargo to the orbital station, including food and equipment for carrying out scientific experiments.

This is SpaceX’s 18th cargo flight to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

"Due to arrive at the International Space Station on July 27, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft contains multiple supplies, equipment and material critical for supporting science and research investigations at the space station," NASA reported on its website.

The resupply ship will undock from the space station in four weeks and will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off California’s coast.