SpaceX Pre-Launch Briefing from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

SpaceX Pre-Launch Brief­ing from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center



NASA,SpaceX (Space­craft Manufacturer),Kennedy Space Cen­ter (Space­port)



NASA and com­mer­cial part­ner SpaceX dis­cussed its plans for a launch of its sev­enth car­go deliv­ery to the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion under the agency’s Com­mer­cial Resup­ply Ser­vices con­tract. The company’s Fal­con 9 will car­ry its Drag­on car­go space­craft to the sta­tion from Space Launch Com­plex 40 at Cape Canaver­al Air Force Sta­tion in Flori­da and be filled with more than 4,000 pounds of sup­plies and pay­loads, includ­ing crit­i­cal mate­ri­als for the sci­ence and research inves­ti­ga­tions that will occur dur­ing Expe­di­tions 44 and 45. 

The sci­ence pay­loads aboard will offer new insight to com­bus­tion in micro­grav­i­ty, per­form the first space-based obser­va­tions of mete­ors enter­ing Earth’s atmos­phere, con­tin­ue solv­ing poten­tial crew health risks and make new strides toward being able to grow food in space. Research con­tin­ues to sup­port the twins study and one-year mis­sion inves­ti­ga­tions with NASA Astro­naut Scott Kel­ly. This mis­sion also is launch­ing more than 30 stu­dent exper­i­ments, all of which are fly­ing under the U.S. Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry man­aged by the Cen­ter for the Advance­ment of Sci­ence in Space (CASIS).

The first of two Inter­na­tion­al Dock­ing Adapters for the sta­tion will be deliv­ered in Dragon’s unpres­sur­ized trunk. The adapters will enable space sta­tion dock­ing of com­mer­cial crew space­craft, includ­ing the Boe­ing CST-100 and SpaceX Crew Drag­on. Expe­di­tion 44 Flight Engi­neer Scott Kel­ly of NASA will use the sta­tion’s Canadarm2 robot­ic arm to reach out and cap­ture Drag­on with Sta­tion com­man­der Gen­nady Padal­ka of the Russ­ian Fed­er­al Space Agency (Roscos­mos) sup­port­ing Kel­ly as they oper­ate from the sta­tion’s cupo­la. After more than five weeks at the space sta­tion, the space­craft will return with more than 1,400 pounds of car­go, includ­ing sci­ence exper­i­ments, crew sup­plies, hard­ware and com­put­er resources, space sta­tion hard­ware, and trash.



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