SpaceX launched an unmanned Dragon cargo ship on Monday evening, an elective flight to deliver three tons of crew supplies, scientific equipment and other equipment to the International Space Station, including an unusual wooden satellite, a solar wind monitor and holiday meals for the laboratory crew.

The Dragon’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from historic Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:29 p.m. EST, lighting up the night sky for miles around as it climbed away with 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

After propelling the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage separated on its fifth flight, changed course and flew back to an on-target landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while the second stage continued its ascent into space .

The landing was SpaceX’s 57th successful launch vehicle landing at the Florida Space Force Station and the 363rd overall, including flights in California and drone ship landings.

Almost 10 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s vacuum-optimized second stage engine shut down and a minute later the Dragon was able to fly independently. If all goes well, it will catch up with the space station on Tuesday morning and dock at the laboratory’s forward port at 10:15 a.m

One of the first items on the agenda is a test Friday to determine the Cargo Dragon’s ability to slightly increase the space station’s orbit using its rear-facing thrusters. The ISS is routinely boosted by Russian Progress freighters and Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ships, but Friday’s test will be a first for SpaceX.

The Californian rocket builder is commissioned by NASA to build a type of powerful space tug that can safely transport the ISS back into the atmosphere when the laboratory complex is decommissioned in 2030. The vehicle is needed to ensure that the station is distributed over a stretch of ocean far from populated areas and shipping lanes.

During Friday’s test, the Cargo Dragon’s stern thrusters will fire for about 12 minutes.

“The data we will collect from this restart and attitude control demonstration will be very helpful and will inform SpaceX analyzes of the system’s performance,” said Jared Metter, SpaceX director of flight reliability. “This data will lead to future capabilities, namely the U.S. de-orbit vehicle.”

Aside from the reboost, the Cargo Dragon is loaded with just over 6,000 pounds of equipment and supplies, including 2,022 pounds of scientific equipment, 2,119 pounds of crew clothing, food and other supplies, 377 pounds of spacewalk equipment, 525 pounds of space station hardware and 44 pounds of computer equipment.

One of the more unusual payloads: lignosate, a small one Wooden satellite using a framework of magnolia panels built by researchers at Kyoto University in Japan and Tokyo-based lumber company Sumitomo.

“While some of you may think that using wood in space seems a bit counterintuitive, researchers hope this research shows that a wooden satellite can be more sustainable and less environmentally damaging than traditional satellites,” said Meghan Everett, ISS deputy project scientist.

“The main goal here is to determine whether wood can be used in space. To do this, researchers will measure the temperature and stress of the wood structure and see how it might change in the vacuum environment of space with atomic oxygen and radiation conditions as well.”

As with all of the Dragon’s stationary cargo ships, crew supplies include fresh food and special treats for holiday meals.

Bill Spetch, ISS operations and integration manager, said the “food kit” includes “citrus, apples, sweet onions, blueberries, radishes, etc.,” as well as lobster, crab and quail for the holiday meals. On board there is a selection of cheeses as well as fresh coffee and personal items requested by each crew member.

Mounted in the unpressurized fuselage portion of the Dragon is the Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX), an instrument that will be mounted outside the space station to learn more about how charged particles in the solar wind are heated to millions of degrees and accelerated to enormous speeds, which has implications Earth’s space environment and the rest of the solar system.

Inside the station, astronauts will be able to operate and monitor a variety of new experiments and instruments, including one called ARTEMOSS, which will study how Antarctic moss tolerates space radiation and microgravity environments to learn more about how plants might be used in future life support systems.

The European Space Agency is sending a space experiment to learn more about how high-tech materials respond to prolonged exposure to the weightless environment, and another experiment to study how organic samples decompose when exposed to unfiltered ultraviolet light from the sun be suspended.

And in an experiment that could be particularly useful for future astronauts, a small device called the Nanolab Astrobeat, provided by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, will test cold welding technology that could prove useful for repairing leaks or other damage Inside could turn out to be a spaceship.

The Cargo Dragon is expected to remain docked with the space station for about a month before returning to Earth with station components in need of overhaul, trash and other items no longer needed.