Archive for the ‘Spacex’ Category

SpaceX to launch 30th resupply mission for NASA – News 13 Orlando

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION It was a successful launch for SpaceX after it sent up its 30th commercial resupply services mission for NASA to the International Space Station late Thursday afternoon.

SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket left Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:55 p.m. ET to send CRS-30 mission to the ISS.

The 45th Weather Squadron gave a 90% chance of good launch conditions with the only thing to worry about is the thick cloud layers and cumulus cloud rules.

Before this launch, SpaceXs first-stage booster B1080 has only five missions to its name:

The first-stage booster of the Falcon 9 rocket landed at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which created a sonic boom.

The CRS-30 mission will send experiments, food, supplies and equipment using SpaceX's Dragon space capsule and sending them to the famed floating laboratory, stated NASA.

NASA and the agencys international partners are sending scientific investigations to the International Space Station on the 30th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission, including tests of technologies to monitor sea ice, automate 3D mapping, and create nanoparticle solar cells, according to the U.S. space agency.

"APEX-09 observes two plant species (C3 and C4) with differing mechanisms for capturing CO2 during photosynthesis. Researchers aim to uncover the molecular changes that occur in plants when they are exposed to microgravity and a combination of space flight stressors," stated NASA. (Image courtesy of Dr. Pubudu Handakumbura.)

APEX-09: This experiment will look at how microgravity will impact two types of grasses when they capture carbon dioxide. The purpose of this is to see how plants can be used for regenerative life support systems (using plants to create oxygen for space stations and ships) and provide food.

Nanoracks-Killick-1: More than 100 undergraduate and graduate engineer students took part in this project that will have a GNSS Reflectometry CubeSat for Measuring Sea Ice Thickness and Extent (Nanoracks-Killick-1) CubeSat to measure sea ice parameters from space.

Multi-Resolution Scanning: Our MRS on an Astrobee free-flying robot will create 3D maps inside the space station, said Marc Elmouttie, who is the project lead with Australias national science agency CSIRO, which developed the technology with Boeing. It could be used to discover defects either in or outside of the ISS and even scanning the surface of Mars and Earths moon.

Nano Particle Haloing Suspension: It is a new way of using tiny spheres called quantum dots that have the possibility of turning sunlight into energy more efficiently.

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SpaceX to launch 30th resupply mission for NASA - News 13 Orlando

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Whee! Zip down from the launch tower in SpaceX’s new emergency-escape slide (video) – Space.com

SpaceX just tested a new astronaut ride one that takes folks down to the ground rather than high above it.

That ride is a deployable slide installed atop the tower at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), a pad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It's designed to get astronauts off the tower in a hurry in the event of an emergency before liftoff.

We just got to see the slide in action, thanks to a video SpaceX posted on X on Tuesday (March 19). The 24-second video provides an astronaut's-eye view of the slide experience, which though serious business wouldn't be out of place at an amusement park.

"Even though its meant to be used for emergencies, it looks like a lot of fun!" SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X on Tuesday, in a post responding to the slide video.

Related: SpaceX to launch 30th cargo mission to the ISS for NASA this week

The recent slide test is part of SpaceX's effort to certify SLC-40 for astronaut launches. SpaceX has launched 13 crewed missions to date, all of them from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is next door to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

To evacuate from Pad 39A's launch tower, astronauts jump into baskets that slide down wires to terra firma. The SLC-40 system is different, as the new video shows: It's an enclosed chute that deploys from the top of the tower when needed, riding already-emplaced cables to the ground.

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SpaceX has launched many (uncrewed) missions from SLC-40 over the years. And another one will lift off on Thursday (March 21), if all goes according to plan.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station from the pad on Thursday at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT). You can watch the action here on Space.com when the time comes.

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Whee! Zip down from the launch tower in SpaceX's new emergency-escape slide (video) - Space.com

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What was in the sky over Phoenix last night? What to know about SpaceX rocket launch – The Arizona Republic

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Space station-bound Dragon supply capsule filled with everything from experiments to coffee – UPI News

March 21 (UPI) -- A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida on Thursday with a Dragon cargo capsule filled with supplies and experiments for the International Space Station.

The launch from Cape Canaveral was SpaceX's 30th commercial supply mission. It is ferrying food, supplies and research equipment to Crew-8, which arrived at the ISS earlier this month.

Also aboard the supply craft are experiments, including those that will study plant metabolism, the physics of fluid that could benefit solar cell technology, and information that will help researchers study and understand sea ice and ocean conditions.

Also aboard Dragon will be food. But Crew-8 will enjoy more than standard, freeze-dried space food. There will be a fresh food kit, including citrus, apples and cherry tomatoes among the 6,000 pounds of cargo aboard the Dragon.

Some food cargo is being awaited more eagerly than other items aboard the Dragon capsule.

"They have two coffee kits, which I would probably be the most excited about," Heidi Parris, associate program scientist at NASA's International Space Station Program Research Office, said during a Tuesday afternoon media conference. "The crew requested those, so we're making sure we get them some fresh coffee."

The astronauts, themselves, will be the subjects of some of the onboard experiments being sent to the space station. Researchers will be collecting information to study a variety of health topics, including age-related diseases and mental-health issues.

Researchers also will study printing cardiac tissue, antibiotic resistance in space, and how the human brain adapts to extreme conditions, according to NASA.

They also will be studying the effect of spaceflight on human eyes, because space travel is thought to mimic oxidated age-related diseases, such as macular degeneration.

Addressing this problem would lead to further understanding about safe human space travel over long durations but also potentially offer treatment for patients on Earth, too.

The resupply mission also is carrying a new camera, which is expected to provide highly detailed images of Earth.

The Dragon is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.

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Space station-bound Dragon supply capsule filled with everything from experiments to coffee - UPI News

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SpaceX launches 30th resupply mission to ISS – WESH 2 Orlando

SpaceX launches 30th resupply mission to International Space Station

Updated: 5:27 PM EDT Mar 21, 2024

Space X launched its 30th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station on Thursday.Falcon 9 took off with the cargo at around 4:55 p.m. from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket landed on SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 a couple of minutes after liftoff. Watch the launch above.

Space X launched its 30th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station on Thursday.

Falcon 9 took off with the cargo at around 4:55 p.m. from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The Falcon 9 rocket landed on SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 a couple of minutes after liftoff.

Watch the launch above.

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