Bending Reuse Muscles, SpaceX Lofts Cargo Craft at the Space Station

SpaceX sent a cargo spaceship to the skies on Friday morning (June 29) during a dazzling pre-Eve takeoff that highlighted the company's considerable reuse capabilities.

A two-story SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket illuminated the Florida skies early in the morning by launching the company's robotic capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) for a delivery mission to NASA at 5:42 am EDT (09:42 GMT) from the cap. Canaveral Air Force Station. He will arrive at the space station early on Monday, July 2nd.

Takeoff was the second for the first leg of the Dragon and Falcon 9; The capsule has already visited the ISS in July 2016, and the accelerator helped launch NASA's Exoplanets Transit satellite study last April. The 10-week turnaround was the shortest ever for a first-stage SpaceX landed and relaunched, company officials said. [See the Evolution of SpaceX’s Rockets in Pictures]

SpaceX did not attempt today to land the booster a second time. The booster is a Falcon 9 "Block 4" variant, which SpaceX is phasing out in favor of the recently launched "Block 5". Thus, the company has given way the first step to the ocean. In fact, today marked the last flight of a block 4 Falcon 9, representatives of SpaceX said.

To date, SpaceX has achieved 25 first-round touchdowns and relaunched 14 boosters on the ground. These activities serve the ambitious long-term vision of the company.

"Right from the start, SpaceX set out to make space flying more like commercial air travel – we want to make it [and] affordable and [to do it]" Jessica Jensen, director of mission management at Dragon at SpaceX, said at a press conference before the launch of the project (28 June).

"It's the key to the future of a civilization where thousands to millions of people are exploring the stars and living on other planets," she added [19659010]. send a used Dragon to the ISS at the top of a Falcon 9 with a proven first step in flight

A lot of science on board

If all goes according to plan, the Dragon will arrive at the laboratory in orbit early Monday morning. The ISS crew members will then begin to unload the 5,900 pounds. (2,700 kilograms) of packaged supplies aboard the capsule.

More than half of this material – 3,874 lb (1,757 kg), to be exact – is a scientific gear, NASA officials said at the press conference yesterday.

An important piece of this research equipment is NASA's ECOSTRESS (Ecosystem Space Radiometer Experiment Radiometer) instrument, which will measure the temperature of vegetation around the Earth with an accuracy of a few tenths of a degree. ECOSTRESS observations will help scientists understand how plants respond to heat stress and lack of water, NASA officials said. The bright-eyed instrument will also help monitor urban heat waves, volcanic activity and forest fires.

"We can see a bonfire on a beach," says Simon Hook, ECOSTRESS Senior Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Pasadena, Calif., Said in a statement

also aboard Dragon is an experiment designed to determine whether cells grown in microgravity can serve as a model system to evaluate the effectiveness of some cancer treatment drugs. Another study aims to design algae for growth in microgravity. [How SpaceX’s Dragon Space Capsule Works (Infographic)]

"The cultivation of algae offers potential as a system for recycling carbon dioxide, which is one of the things we need in our survival systems," he said. David Brady, scientific assistant at the ISS. press conference. "And he could also provide food for crew members on long space travels."

Then CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion), a joint effort of the German Space Agency (DLR) and the Netherlands. Airbus, aerospace company The almost spherical, 11 lbs. (5 kg) CIMON is an astronaut assistant with an artificial intelligence capable of seeing, hearing and talking. His main mission aboard the ISS is to demonstrate "the cooperation between humans and intelligent machines in the form of a technological experiment," wrote DLR officials in a project description

A stay of one month

ls ISS for a month, eventually returning to Earth for immersion in the ocean (and subsequent recovery by boat) on August 2nd. Dragon – the only operational freighter currently designed to survive the crossing of the Earth's atmosphere – will carry 2,860 lbs. Brady said:

Today's launch launched SpaceX's 15th SpaceX refueling mission, called CRS-15, as part of its multi-billion dollar NASA contract. ("CRS" means "commercial replenishment services".)

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems has a similar agreement with NASA; the company makes its shipments with the aid of Cygnus robots and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets. (NASA has signed this resupply contract with Virginia's Orbital ATK, recently acquired by Northrop Grumman.) 19659025] SpaceX's freighter Dragon separates from its Falcon 9 upper deck after a successful launch of the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida in June. 29, 2018. This is Dragon's cargo theft to the International Space Station. “/>