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SpaceX Reaches Milestone with 30th Cargo Mission to ISS
SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk, is on the brink of achieving a significant milestone as it prepares to launch its 30th contracted cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. The mission, named CRS-30 (“Commercial Resupply Services-30”), is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 21, barring any unforeseen complications.
A robotic SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to blast off atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Viewers can witness the launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA.
Scientific Endeavors Await on CRS-30
Once CRS-30 reaches the ISS on Saturday, March 23, it will be delivering a wide array of provisions, equipment, and scientific experiments to the orbiting laboratory. Notable investigations on this mission include studies on plant metabolism in space, as well as the deployment of new sensors for the free-flying Astrobee robots, enhancing their 3D-mapping capabilities.
NASA officials detailed that “other research includes a fluid physics study with potential applications in solar cell technology, as well as a university project in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) that focuses on monitoring sea ice and ocean conditions.”
Following its month-long stay at the ISS, the Dragon capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown off the Florida coast. It is worth noting that Dragon is the sole robotic cargo spacecraft serving the ISS that is able to return intact, providing researchers with the ability to retrieve scientific equipment and data from the station. In contrast, other operational freighters, such as Russia’s Progress vehicle and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus, are designed to disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere upon completion of their orbital missions.
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