WATCH: Carrying supplies for the One Year Crew in the ISS, the SpaceX resupply mission successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Florida.



TORONTO – Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was likely very happy that SpaceX‘s resupply mission to the International Space Station was a success on Tuesday. That’s because the crew is getting a special delivery: an espresso machine.

Probably not a surprise, the espresso machine — called ISSpresso — was made by Italian company Lavazza in partnership engineering company Argotec and the Italian Space Agency.

The espresso machine that will be heading to the ISS in 2015. Brought to you by the Italian space agency, of course. pic.twitter.com/X9ILMhk4E2 — Nicole Mortillaro (@NebulousNikki) September 30, 2014

The launch was originally scheduled for Monday at 4:33 p.m. ET, but had to be scrubbed due to nearby thunderstorms.

Space agencies try to provide the comforts of home as much as they can for the astronauts who live aboard the space station on average for six months (the first one-year mission is now under way). Just think about Chris Hadfield’s guitar.

Story continues below advertisement

READ MORE: A conversation with Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon

“The psychological support is very, very important,” said NASA space station program deputy manager Dan Hartman. “If an espresso machine comes back and we get a lot of great comments from the crew … It’s kind of like the ice cream thing, right, when we fly ice cream every now and then. It’s just to boost spirits. Maybe some rough day, a scoop of ice cream gets them over that hump kind of thing.”

There is about 4,300 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. One experiment will be an investigation into the visual changes many astronauts report after living on the station.

For the third time, SpaceX attempted to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge. Though it reached its target successfully, it did not land.

Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing pic.twitter.com/eJWzN6KSJa — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, strives to reduce launch costs by having reusable spacecraft. The company had estimated that there was a 75 to 80 per cent chance of success.

–with files from The Associated Press

Follow @NebulousNikki

Story continues below advertisement