
SpaceX launches its 29th cargo flight to the International Space Station
CBSN
Lighting up the night sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaked into orbit in spectacular fashion Thursday, kicking off a 32-hour rendezvous with the International Space Station to deliver 6,500 pounds of research gear, crew supplies and needed equipment.
Also on board: fresh fruit, cheese and pizza kits, and "some fun holiday treats for the crew, like chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccino, rice cakes, turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce and mochi," said Dana Weigel, deputy space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center.
Liftoff from historic Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida came at 8:28 p.m. EDT, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the seaside firing stand directly into the plane of the space station's orbit. That's a requirement for rendezvous missions with targets moving at more than 17,000 mph.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.