SpaceX launches ants, avocados, robot to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A SpaceX shipment of ants, avocados and a human-sized robotic arm rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday. The delivery – due to arrive Monday – is the company’s 23rd for NASA in just under a decade. A recycled Falcon rocket blasted into the predawn sky from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Dragon is carrying more than 4,800 pounds of supplies and experiments, and fresh food including avocados, lemons and even ice cream for the space station’s seven astronauts.