SpaceX resupply mission to space station on tap tonight

SpaceX’s game of Dragon musical chairs continues this week with a planned launch of a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station tonight from Kennedy Space Center.

The ISS has room for two Dragon spacecraft to dock, and at the moment there’s one place to park after the Saturday night return of the Crew-5 mission on Crew Dragon Endurance. Already up is Crew Dragon Endeavour which took up its quartet of three astronauts and one cosmonaut on the Crew-6 mission on March 2.

The CRS-27 mission, the 27th resupply flight for SpaceX, on a Cargo Dragon looks to send up thousands of pounds of supplies and science experiments including 15 new ISS National Lab-sponsored payloads, part of more than 200 on tap for the Expedition 68 and 69 crews over the next six months.

Some of the experiments flying to the station will look at heart cell function in space, a student-designed camera stability demonstrator, a system to remove carbon dioxide from the air using liquid, and an investigation to looks to keep other planets safe from human contamination.

L3Harris based in Melbourne is sending up a project to test 3D-printed radio frequency circuits and hunt for satellite materials that can survive the stresses of space.

Liftoff from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A atop a Falcon 9 rocket is slated for 8:30 p.m. with backup opportunities on Wednesday and Friday.

Space Launch Delta 45′s weather squadron gives only a 50% chance for good conditions Tuesday, 95% chance on Wednesday and 90% chance on Friday.

The booster for the flight is making its seventh launch, and SpaceX will attempt a recovery on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. This Cargo Dragon previously flew to missions to the space station.

It’s slated to dock with the ISS on Thursday at 7:52 a.m.

If it goes it, it will be the 13th launch in 10 weeks from the Space Coast, all from SpaceX.

SpaceX shares resupply flights for NASA to the ISS with Northrop Grumman, which flies its Cygnus capsules from Virginia. A third commercial resupply partner, Sierra Space with its Dream Chaser spacecraft, is looking to become certified as soon as this year to begin its spate of mission. The first Dream Chaser spaceflight is on tap for this summer atop the second flight of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Russia and Japan also fly supplies up to the station.

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