by Putting on a spectacular show in the night sky, a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Thursday and launched a Dragon cargo ship into orbit, loaded with nearly three tons of supplies, equipment and scientific equipment bound for the International Space Station.
The research team includes a $118 million instrument that will be mounted outside the station to study the mineral composition of dust ejected into the atmosphere from desert regions around the world to learn more about how such widely dispersed materials affect the environment. ambient.
Also on board: apples, oranges, cherry tomatoes, onions, baby carrots, garlic, tahini, cheese and sausage for the astronauts.
“A really nice mix of fresh fruit for the crew,” said Dana Weigel, deputy director of the ISS program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
When the Dragon capsule returns to Earth in just over a month, it will bring back a spacesuit worn by German astronaut Matthias Maurer during a March spacewalk, or EVA, to find out what caused a small amount of water to seep into his helmet. .
While the incident was not as serious as a 2013 water intrusion that flooded Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet, normal spacewalks have been suspended until the issue is resolved.
“That’s really key for us, we have to take (Maurer’s) suit home to take a look at it … to really try to understand what happened,” Weigel said. “And that will be part of what we need for our assessment of our eventual readiness when we consider going back to nominal EVAs.”
SpaceX’s CRS-25 cargo tour got underway at 8:44 p.m.
Making its fifth flight, the Falcon 9 first stage descended and flew to a successful landing on a SpaceX barge 7 1/2 minutes after liftoff. One minute after that, the second stage finished its ascent into space, and three minutes later, the Dragon cargo ship was released to fly on its own.
The deep twilight ascent out of the atmosphere provided a mesmerizing spectacle for area residents and tourists, as the rocket rose into the sunlight with the exhaust plume from its engines billowing outward in a rocket-like display. comet, as one stage headed for orbit and the other toward landing.
“It truly was a beautiful launch and I am excited to see the CRS-25 Dragon heading to the space station,” said Dina Contella, space station operations integration manager. “So congratulations to everyone at SpaceX, and I know our scientists and cargo providers are looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labor reach the ISS.”
At launch, the ISS was sailing 260 miles above the South Pacific Ocean, about 20 minutes from passing directly over the Kennedy Space Center. The Dragon was launched directly into the plane of that orbit, a requirement for rendezvous missions.
Over the next two days, the spacecraft will carry out a series of carefully choreographed rocket launches to catch up with the lab, moving from behind and below before climbing to a point directly in front of the outpost.
From there, the Dragon will move slowly to dock in the forward port of the Harmony module around 11:20 am on Saturday.
The unpressurized trunk section of the Dragon carries 1,200 pounds of equipment: a battery charge/discharge unit for the station’s solar power system and NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, or EMIT, instrument.
Developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, EMIT will use imaging spectroscopy to measure the mineral composition of dust expelled into the atmosphere from desert regions around the world to learn more about how such materials are transported, how they affect temperature, air quality and the environment in general.
Dragon’s pressurized compartment, the section accessible to astronauts inside the space station, contains 829 pounds of crew supplies, 2,468 pounds of science equipment, 400 pounds of spacewalking equipment, 724 pounds of space station hardware, station and 72 pounds of computer equipment.
“This is going to be a very busy mission for us, it’s packed with a lot of science,” Weigel said.
Dragon’s visit kicks off a busy few months for the ISS programme, as training ramps up for Russian Soyuz and NASA Crew Dragon astronaut rotation flights expected in September.
The Crew Dragon flight will carry two NASA rookies, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, veteran Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Anna Kikina, a Russian cosmonaut making her first flight.
Kikina’s presence on the Crew 5 Dragon is expected as part of a seat swap that NASA is negotiating with the Russian space agency to ensure there will always be at least one Russian and one American aboard the station, even if an emergency forces a Soyuz or Dragon capsule to travel. leave early with all your crew.
Assuming the seat swap goes through as expected, the next Soyuz crew launch, scheduled for mid-September, will carry two cosmonauts, veteran Sergey Prokopyev and rookie Dmitry Petelin, to the ISS, along with astronaut from the NASA Frank Rubio, who will also make his first flight. .
Despite Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Cold War-like East-West relations, “we are hopeful that we are pretty close to finalizing the deal,” Weigel said.
“It is in the final stages of review with both NASA and Roscosmos,” Weigel continued. “Anna Kikina continues to train with Crew 5 as per the normal plan. Similarly, Frank Rubio has been training with the Soyuz crew. So his crew training is in good shape.”
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