SpaceX preparing for third launch of Dragon capsule to space station

The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012 in this file photo. (The Associated Press)

SpaceX is scheduled to send its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on March 1, the third such trip for the groundbreaking Hawthorne rocket developer.

The company officially known as Space Exploration Technologies will send about 1,200 pounds of supplies on the Dragon for the space station crew.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry Dragon to orbit with a launch at 7:10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA announced the schedule on Thursday.

SpaceX's mission will further NASA's plan for commercial businesses to take over resupplying the orbiting laboratory. That task had previously rested on NASA, which used to maintain a fleet of space shuttles. However, NASA retired the final space shuttle in 2011.

The space agency expects to save money by allowing companies like SpaceX to take supplies - and eventually humans - to the space station.

That also will free NASA to focus on more ambitious deep-space missions like visiting asteroids and reaching Mars.

SpaceX's first mission to the space station was in May, making history by becoming the first private company to send a craft to the international lab. That was a test flight even though it delivered supplies and returned equipment to Earth.

SpaceX followed its May feat with a second successful mission in October.

SpaceX is under a $1.6 billion NASA contract that calls

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SpaceX preparing for third launch of Dragon capsule to space station