{"id":14866,"date":"2017-02-17T21:48:16","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T13:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/final-experiments-added-to-spacex-spaceship-for-station-resupply-flight\/"},"modified":"2017-02-17T21:48:16","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T13:48:16","slug":"final-experiments-added-to-spacex-spaceship-for-station-resupply-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/final-experiments-added-to-spacex-spaceship-for-station-resupply-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Final experiments added to SpaceX spaceship for station resupply flight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A view of the access room temporarily attached to SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo capsule at launch pad 39A Friday. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Engineers clad in clean suits finished stowing last-minute cargo into SpaceX\u2019s Dragon supply ship Friday, including 40 mice and bacterial research specimens, a day before it is scheduled to blast off to the International Space Station in the first flight from the Kennedy Space Center\u2019s historic Apollo-era launch pad 39A since 2011.<\/p>\n

Working at the base of a towering 30-story support structure built to prepare space shuttles for liftoff, NASA and SpaceX crews accessed the hatch to the Dragon spaceship through a purified \u201cwhite room\u201d to pack around 1,000 pounds (around 450 kilograms) of time-critical equipment into the capsule.<\/p>\n

That is about one-fifth of the overall cargo load, which totals nearly 5,500 pounds (2.5 metric tons.<\/p>\n

The Dragon supply ship was already attached to its Falcon 9 booster for the \u201clate stow\u201d at the launch pad. A powerful hydraulic erector was scheduled to hoist the 213-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket vertical Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular SpaceX launch is going to send supplies and research up that\u2019s going to support just about 300 investigations that are going to be happening over the next six-month period,\u201d said Tara Ruttley, associate program scientist for the space station at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston. \u201cThose investigations are going to represent about 800 scientists\u2019 work around the planet.<\/p>\n

The space station\u2019s six-person crew will perform many of the experiments, participating in the rodent research study and several life science investigations. Others, such as an externally-mounted ozone sensor, are designed to function on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose six people are the proxy scientists in that laboratory, where microgravity is the one unique resource up there that you just can\u2019t replicate here on Earth,\u201d Ruttley said.<\/p>\n

The space station crew has a good inventory of food, water and other crucial supplies, so scientific equipment takes up the lion\u2019s share of the Dragon spacecraft\u2019s cargo capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumable-wise, we\u2019re in great shape,\u201d said Dan Hartman, NASA\u2019s deputy space station program manager. \u201cWe\u2019ve got well above our reserve levels for food and water, so we\u2019ve really dedicated this Dragon mission to the research \u2014 and it\u2019s chock-full \u2014 and the crew\u2019s really going to enjoy the science we\u2019re getting ready to bring up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unpiloted mission is set to begin at 10:01:32 a.m. EST (1501:32 GMT) with a fiery takeoff from pad 39A, a sprawling complex about a half mile (750 meters) inland from the Atlantic Ocean at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

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The Falcon 9 rocket stands atop launch pad 39A. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally constructed in the 1960s for the Apollo moon program, pad 39A hosted 12 Saturn 5 blastoffs on test flights, all of the moon landing missions and the uncrewed launch of NASA\u2019s Skylab space station from 1967 through 1973.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s fleet of space shuttles launched from the pad 82 times, including the first and last flights of the program in 1981 and 2011.<\/p>\n

The launch pad has remained dormant since the last shuttle mission took off July 8, 2011, and SpaceX signed a 20-year lease to take over the facility as a commercially-operated launch complex in 2014.<\/p>\n

NASA decided it no longer needed pad 39A after the shuttle\u2019s retirement. Nearby launch pad 39B, previously built for Apollo and shuttle flights, will be home to NASA\u2019s Space Launch System, a government-owned heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronaut crews on deep space expeditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pad would have just sat here and rusted away in the salt air had we not had the use agreement with SpaceX to continue to enable commercial operations for our nation,\u201d said Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

The concrete foundation of pad 39A dates back to the Apollo era of the 1960s, while the 347-foot-tall (106-meter) fixed service structure and lightning tower were emplaced before the first shuttle launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me a little bit of chills when I walk out there and see stuff that\u2019s left over from Apollo,\u201d said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of flight reliability.<\/p>\n

Since SpaceX took over, changes to pad 39A have included the construction of the new rocket hangar outside the south gate to the facility, where space shuttles and Saturn 5 moon rockets arrived on top of tracked crawler-transporters after rollout from the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building.<\/p>\n

The hangar can accommodate five Falcon 9 rocket cores at a time, according to SpaceX.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken good care of this pad during the refurbishment and the rebuild,\u201d said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president, in remarks to reporters at the launch site Friday. \u201cWe saved precious things that needed to be saved. We\u2019ve upgraded things to make them usable in the contemporary era. It\u2019s hard to express how excited I am to be here, just two-and-a-half years after we got the lease.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An aerial view of launch pad 39A from late 2015. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX sped the pad to completion after a rocket explosion damaged the company\u2019s other Cape Canaveral launch facility \u2014 Complex 40 a few miles to the south \u2014 and grounded Falcon 9 flights until the booster returned to service last month in a mission from California.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery launch for me is a significant emotional event,\u201d Shotwell said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a launch where I feel comfortable and calm. They\u2019re always nerve-wracking. I will tell you it\u2019s an extra-special launch tomorrow, for sure, and maybe extra nerve-wracking, in that case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other additions at the pad include the installation of RP-1 kerosene fuel tanks and the construction of the massive transporter-erector, which is sized to accommodate SpaceX\u2019s powerful triple-body Falcon Heavy rocket when it debuts later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep in mind, it\u2019s a new pad for us,\u201d Shotwell said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try to lift off tomorrow, and have a very exciting day, but we\u2019ve got opportunities in follow-on days as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX tested many of the launch pad\u2019s new parts Feb. 12 during a countdown rehearsal in which the Falcon 9 rocket was fueled before a hold-down engine firing.<\/p>\n

Engineers returned the two-stage launcher to SpaceX\u2019s hangar, added the Dragon spacecraft, then rolled the fully-assembled vehicle back to the pad Thursday for further tests and the loading of final cargo.<\/p>\n

But some features of the launch pad \u2014 like the partial retraction of the transporter-erector at liftoff \u2014 have not yet been exercised in a real countdown.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 rocket will turn on a northeasterly heading after firing off the pad with 1.7 million pounds of thrust, aligning its flight path with the orbit of the space station. Within about a minute, the kerosene-fueled launcher will fly faster than the speed of sound, and the nine-engine first stage will drop away at T+plus 2 minutes, 24 seconds.<\/p>\n

A Merlin upper stage engine will ignite eight seconds later to push the Dragon spacecraft into a preliminary orbit. Cutoff of the Merlin second stage engine is set for T+plus 9 minutes, 5 seconds, followed a minute later by separation of the Dragon cargo carrier and the extension of its power-generating solar panels.<\/p>\n

Before the second stage finishes its vital engine burn, the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s 15-story first stage will flip around to fly tail first, ignite three of its Merlin 1D engines to boost back toward Cape Canaveral, and attempt a propulsive vertical touchdown at a specially-outfitted concrete landing target around 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of pad 39A.<\/p>\n

The return to Landing Zone 1, a converted Cold War-era Atlas launch complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, would mark the first time a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has returned for a recovery on land in daylight.<\/p>\n

Two previous rocket landings at Cape Canaveral occurred at night in December 2015 and July 2016.<\/p>\n

The landings at Cape Canaveral and on SpaceX\u2019s ocean-going barge are aimed at advancing the company\u2019s ambitions to slash launch costs through recovering and reusing rocket stages.<\/p>\n

But the rocket return is purely a secondary objective, and Shotwell said she always feels more nervous during launches than landings.<\/p>\n

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SpaceX\u2019s patch for its tenth resupply flight to the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once in orbit, the Dragon supply freighter will open a navigation bay later Saturday and fine-tune its course toward the space station with a series of thruster firings ahead of its arrival at the outpost early Monday.<\/p>\n

French-born European Space Agency flight engineer Thomas Pesquet will grapple the approaching cargo craft around 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) Monday with the space station\u2019s robotic arm after the automated ship flies within about 30 feet, or 10 meters, of the research complex.<\/p>\n

The Canadian-built robot arm, under the command of ground controllers in Houston, will transfer the gumdrop-shaped logistics freighter to a berthing port on the station\u2019s Harmony module a few hours later.<\/p>\n

Once bolts drive closed to firmly connect the SpaceX cargo craft to the space station, astronauts inside the orbiting science lab will open hatches and begin unpacking the 3,373 pounds (1,530 kilograms) of supplies, experiments and provisions inside.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the robot arm and the station\u2019s two-armed Dextre handyman will remove three payloads from the Dragon\u2019s unpressurized trunk for placement on platforms on the outpost\u2019s huge structural truss.<\/p>\n

One of the payloads is NASA\u2019s $92 million Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 3, or SAGE 3, an ozone monitor that comes with a separate ESA-built \u201chexapod\u201d mounting plate designed to point the instrument at Earth\u2019s limb, or horizon, at sunset and moonset.<\/p>\n

The sunlight and moonlight passing through the layers of the upper atmosphere will help tell scientists about the condition of the ozone layer and allow researchers to track pollutants and particles suspended high above Earth.<\/p>\n

SAGE 3, developed by NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Virginia, is the latest in a series of ozone measurement sensors developed by NASA since 1979. Previous space missions studying ozone showed a decline in the amount of the gas over Earth\u2019s poles, and researchers tied the ozone depletion to chlorofluorocarbon, a chemical used in cleaning agents, refrigeration and air conditioning.<\/p>\n

An international treaty called the Montreal Protocol that went into force in 1989 banned chlorofluorocarbons, and scientists have observed the depletion stop and watched the ozone layer begin to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does SAGE 3 fit into that? We\u2019re going to make measurements from the space station that show the recovery is on track,\u201d said Michael Cisewski, SAGE 3 project manager at NASA. \u201cI think that, from a science perspective, it doesn\u2019t get any better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSAGE 3 will also measure other important stratospheric gases and atmospheric aerosols, which are components of pollution that also impact the radiation balance of our planet,\u201d said Michael Freilich, director of NASA\u2019s Earth science division.<\/p>\n

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A view inside the Dragon spacecraft\u2019s trunk showing the SAGE 3 instrument, its hexapod attach mechanism, and the Defense Department\u2019s STP-H5 payload. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other experiment package carried inside the Dragon capsule\u2019s external bay is sponsored by the U.S. military\u2019s Space Test Program, hosting more than a dozen investigations for NASA and the Defense Department.<\/p>\n

Among STP-H5\u2019s investigations are NASA\u2019s Raven autonomous space navigation demonstration designed to support future satellite servicing missions and NASA\u2019s Lightning Imaging Sensor.<\/p>\n

The Raven payload is made up of three sensors \u2014 optical, infrared and laser trackers \u2014 to autonomously follow visiting cargo vessels arriving and departing from the space station.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Reed, deputy director of NASA\u2019s satellite servicing program at Goddard Space Flight Center, called Raven a \u201cthree-eyed\u201d instrument.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Raven module will be observing visiting vehicles as they approach in all three wavelengths,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe will be generating range, bearing and pose estimates of those visiting vehicles on-board with sophisticated algorithms and on-board processing, based on the input that the sensors are receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raven is a follow-up to a NASA experiment that tried out satellite refueling techniques using a boilerplate test panel outside the space station.<\/p>\n

The satellite servicing demonstrations will refine the technologies needed for future robotic missions to refuel, refurbish, upgrade and reposition satellites, beginning with NASA\u2019s Restore-L spacecraft in development for launch in 2020 to gas up the aging Landsat 7 environmental observatory in orbit.<\/p>\n

Raven will try out the navigation equipment needed for Restore-L, and missions like it, to approach another object in orbit without any input from the ground and latch on to it, even if the target was never designed for a docking.<\/p>\n

Landsat 7 was launched in 1999 before any such refueling mission was ever proposed, so it is not equipped with markings or a docking port.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese technologies are quite difficult, and that is why NASA is taking the lead, pushing the envelope, (and) doing the hard work first,\u201d Reed said. \u201cOnce we have developed it on missions like Raven, we will then transfer that technology to U.S. industry that is interested in taking this on commercially.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lightning Imaging Sensor, managed by NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in partnership with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will take pictures and log lightning strikes from the space station\u2019s perch nearly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

Based on a spare camera made for the U.S.-Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, the instrument cost $7 million to refurbish and will detect lightning day and night in a belt between 56 degrees north and south latitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cLightning actually occurs somewhere on Earth some 45 times every single second,\u201d Freilich said. \u201cUnderstanding the processes which cause lighting and the connections between lightning and subsequent severe weather events like convective storms and tornadoes \u2026 are keys to improving weather predictions and saving lives and property in this country and throughout the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bevy of biological experiments are packed inside the Dragon supply ship.<\/p>\n

Scientists are sending 40 mice into orbit to examine how bone fractures heal in the absence of gravity, and search for the biological reasons why most animals, including humans, cannot regrow lost limbs.<\/p>\n

\"\"
File photo of astronaut Butch Wilmore working with a rodent research experiment on the space station in 2014. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to understand what happens in the body as the bones start healing,\u201d said Rasha Hammamieh, the rodent research project\u2019s chief scientist from the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research.<\/p>\n

The military is co-sponsoring the bone health experiment, with an eye toward learning lessons that could be applied to helping injured soldiers recover from catastrophic bone injuries.<\/p>\n

There are also implications for civilians, such as elderly patients with osteoporosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp in space, you lose bone,\u201d said Melissa Kacena, co-investigator for the bone experiment and an associate professor of orthopedic surgery, anatomy and cell biology, and biomedical engineering at Indiana University. \u201cIn fact, astronauts lose about 1 to 3 percent of their bone density in a month. Someone with advanced osteoporosis loses closer to 1 percent per year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kacena added that scientists want to test drugs on rodents that might be able to \u201crebuild your bone systematically, so it could have applications not only for bone healing, but also for osteoporosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Astronauts on the space station will euthanize the mice and return them to Earth for comparison with a control group that remained on the ground.<\/p>\n

Bacterial and stem cell researchers also have a stake in Saturday\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to put MRSA, which is a superbug, on the International Space Station and investigate the effects of microgravity on the growth and mutation patterns of these bugs,\u201d said Anita Goel, chairman and science director of Nanobiosym, which developed the experiment with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this hypothesis that microgravity will accelerate the mutation patterns. If we can use microgravity as an accelerator to fast forward and get a sneak preview of what these mutations will look like, then we can esssentially build smarter drugs back on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

A science team led by a Mayo Clinic biologist is sending human adult stem cells to the space station, pursuing research that could help transplant patients and stroke victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know stem cells grow differently using simulated microgravity,\u201d said Abba Zubair, medical and scientific director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. \u201cPrimarily, our focus is to see if microgravity actually can help stem cells to expand faster, so that we can grow more of them to bring back to use for human application.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dragon spaceship will remain at the space station until March 21, when it will detach and head for a re-entry and parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where SpaceX will safe the capsule, transfer it back to port, and begin removing the returned cargo.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view of the access room temporarily attached to SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo capsule at launch pad 39A Friday. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now Engineers clad in clean suits finished stowing last-minute cargo into SpaceX\u2019s Dragon supply ship Friday, including 40 mice and bacterial research specimens, a day before it is scheduled to blast off to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3407,291,1395,159,3292,479,717,1602],"class_list":["post-14866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-casis","tag-commercial-space","tag-dragon","tag-earth-observation","tag-expedition-50","tag-falcon-9","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss-cargo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}