SpaceX achieved another milestone on November 9 with the successful launch of a cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at 8:28 p.m. Eastern, carrying the CRS-29 cargo Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Dragon is set to autonomously dock with the ISS around 5:20 a.m. Eastern on November 11, remaining at the station until early to mid-December.<\/p>\n
Originally scheduled for November 5, the launch was delayed to address a leaking valve on one of the Draco thrusters, containing nitrogen tetroxide propellant. SpaceX\u2019s Benji Reed, Senior Director of Human Spaceflight Programs, explained during a prelaunch briefing on November 8 that after the thruster replacement, technicians found traces of nitrogen tetroxide in the area, which decreased once the system was fully pressurized.<\/p>\n
The cargo Dragon is carrying 2,950 kilograms of cargo, featuring key payloads such as the ILLUMA-T laser communications demonstration and the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE), studying gravity waves in Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere and their links to space weather.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the spacecraft transports various supplies, experiments, and hardware for the ISS and its crew. Notably, it includes a replacement tool bag for equipment lost during a spacewalk on November 1 by NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O\u2019Hara. Although the lost bag contained ancillary equipment, NASA is still investigating the circumstances leading to its detachment.<\/p>\n
SpaceX is concurrently working on a tower at nearby Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) to support Dragon missions, providing an alternative launch site. The crew access arm, one of the final components for the tower, was recently installed. Reed highlighted that having SLC-40 as a Dragon launch site would alleviate the heavy manifest at LC-39A, which is also utilized for Falcon Heavy launches.<\/p>\n
The move to establish Dragon capability at SLC-40 ensures mission continuity if LC-39A becomes unavailable for an extended period. This development comes as SpaceX advances its Starship launch pad construction at LC-39A.<\/p>\n
According to reports, the new tower at SLC-40 may see its first use for the Ax-3 private astronaut mission to the ISS, scheduled for an early January launch. Utilizing SLC-40 would free up LC-39A for the IM-1 lunar lander mission launching as soon as January 12, necessitating LC-39A for fueling the lander just before liftoff.<\/p>\n
Reed refrained from confirming if Ax-3 would be the inaugural crewed mission launching from SLC-40, stating, \u201cWhen it comes to the upcoming manifest, we\u2019re working through that. The good news is that, with 40 coming online, we have more options.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SpaceX achieved another milestone on November 9 with the successful launch of a cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at 8:28 p.m. Eastern, carrying the CRS-29 cargo Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Dragon is set to autonomously dock with the ISS around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20346,"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":[1475,233,675,316],"class_list":["post-20343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ax-3","tag-iss","tag-slc-40","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20343"}],"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=20343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}