SpaceX launches resupply mission to space station

SpaceX’s game of Dragon musical chairs continued this week with a launch of a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station Tuesday night from Kennedy Space Center.

The ISS has room for two Dragon spacecraft to dock, and at the moment there’s one place to park after the Saturday night return of the Crew-5 mission on Crew Dragon Endurance. Already up is Crew Dragon Endeavour which took up its quartet of three astronauts and one cosmonaut on the Crew-6 mission on March 2.

The CRS-27 mission, the 27th resupply flight for SpaceX, on a cargo Dragon sent up around 6,300 pounds of supplies and science experiments including 15 new ISS National Lab-sponsored payloads, part of more than 200 on tap for the Expedition 68 and 69 crews over the next six months.

Some of the experiments flying to the station will look at heart cell function in space, a student-designed camera stability demonstrator, a system to remove carbon dioxide from the air using liquid, and an investigation to looks to keep other planets safe from human contamination.

L3Harris based in Melbourne is sending up a project to test 3D-printed radio frequency circuits and hunt for satellite materials that can survive the stresses of space.

The Falcon 9 rocket topped with cargo Dragon lifted off from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A lighting up the Space Coast sky at 8:30 p.m.

The booster for the flight made its seventh launch, and SpaceX was able to recover it on its droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.

This cargo Dragon previously flew to missions to the space station. It’s slated to dock with the ISS on Thursday at 7:52 a.m.

SpaceX shares resupply flights for NASA to the ISS with Northrop Grumman, which flies its Cygnus capsules from Virginia. A third commercial resupply partner, Sierra Space with its Dream Chaser spacecraft, is looking to become certified as soon as this year to begin its spate of mission. The first Dream Chaser spaceflight is on tap for this summer atop the second flight of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Russia and Japan also fly supplies up to the station.

This marks the 13th launch in 10 weeks from the Space Coast, all from SpaceX, although Friday could see another attempt from startup company Relativity Space in its third try to send up its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket for the first time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Friday could also see another SpaceX launch with two communication satellites.

Follow Orlando Sentinel space coverage at Facebook.com/goforlaunchsentinel.