The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on schedule Friday morning from Florida, making this the 15th flight to the space station. Dragon takes off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in the company of more than 5,900 pounds of research, cargo, equipment, and supplies.
Experimental investigations are among the research priorities, which courses to the international station following Friday’s launch of SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 5:42 a.m. EDT. The supplies loaded for the takeoff will help in further investigation aboard the space station.
On the spacecraft’s arrival at the station, NASA’s astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will use the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture the Dragon as it arrives. The live coverage will be aired on NASA’s television and website from 5:30 A.M. on Monday, July 2. The installation will be aired live from 9:00 A.M. onwards.
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The supplies taken by Dragon for research include a cellular biology investigation that will help to understand how microgravity affects the growth, gene expression and the ability of a model bacterium to transfer electrons through its cell membrane along the bacterial nanowires it produces.
Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer experiment will provide a new space-based measurement thus investigating to the responses that plants show towards the changes in water availability. This will provide with environmental betterment and for managing agricultural water use.
Along with the hundreds of pounds carried to space, contains a spare Canadian-built Latching End Effector (LEE) that will be used as the “hands” to grapple payloads while visiting cargo spaceships. It enables Canadarm2 to walk on the orbiting outpost.
This is the 15th Cargo flight to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. Dragon is scheduled to land back on Earth with more than 3,800 pounds of research, hardware and crew supplies resulting in research breakthroughs and robotic exploration into deep space.
Source: NASA