SpaceX will reuse Cargo Dragon a sixth time on upcoming launch to ISS
A SpaceX Cargo Dragon carrying about 3,000 kilograms of cargo is slated to launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday. The CRS-34 mission will be the sixth flight for this particular capsule, a record for the design and ISS cargo resupply as a whole since the space shuttle days.
As of Monday, the weather forecast was 65% favorable for a 7:16 p.m. Eastern liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. In case of a scrub, the next opportunity is 6:50 p.m. Wednesday. The spacecraft, which is slated to arrive at ISS on Thursday if the Tuesday target holds, is to remain docked to the station until mid-June.
On board will be several science experiments ranging from health to solar weather detection. Liz Warren, deputy chief scientist for NASA’s International Space Station Program, said in a press conference Monday that ongoing research aboard ISS is an important part of whatever comes next after the station is decommissioned, be that in deep space or in low-Earth orbit. NASA is planning to deorbit ISS in 2031 and move its LEO research to one or more of the commercial space stations in development.
Researchers “fully anticipate transitioning to commercial platforms to continue their research in low-Earth orbit” after ISS is retired, Warren said.
One of the CRS-34 experiments, known as ODYSSEY (short for Outcomes of microbial Dynamics during Spaceflight and in SimulatEd microgravity) is to continue NASA’s ongoing research about how bacteria, particular biofilm, adapts to a microgravity space environment, which is crucial for protecting astronaut health, according to a NASA mission description page. For ODYSSEY, researchers from Voyager Technologies will “examine bacterial behavior in space and compare the results to experiments conducted in microgravity simulators on Earth,” according to the mission description.
Another experiment, Green Bone, will attempt to grow human bone cells on specially treated rattan wood in microgravity. The findings could provide solutions to combat osteoporosis and heal broken bones, according to NASA.
Dragon also will carry NASA’s STORIE imaging instrument, which is to be mounted on the station’s exterior to study charged particles around Earth that can impact power grids and satellites.
CRS-34 “enables critical research that helps people back on Earth, as well as better understand what we need to do to make life multiplanetary,” SpaceX’s Lee Echerd, senior mission manager of government and commercial mission management, said in the press conference.
