SpaceX rocket launches on resupply run
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched from Kennedy Space Centre on the 52nd successful flight of the year from the Space Coast.
The CRS-26 mission lifted off on Saturday from Launch Pad 39-A on a resupply run to the International Space Station at 2.20pm.
A brand new cargo Dragon spacecraft is carting up 3,493kg of food, scientific investigation and supplies to the station, including a pair of roll-out solar arrays to help with power supply.
“Everyone is anxious to see the science kick off as soon as docking occurs,” said Jeff Arend with Nasa’s systems engineering and integration office for the ISS.
That includes a study that will let the ISS crew grow dwarf tomatoes as part of Nasa’s plans to support long-term human space travel needs.
A related investigation called BioNutrients-2 looks to produce on-demand nutrients by using combination of yogurt, a yeastbased drink, and the fermented milk drink kefir.
Several student-led experiments are making the flight as well, including three payloads supported by central Florida nonprofit SpaceKids Global and the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council. One of those will investigate how brine shrimp, aka sea monkeys, behave in microgravity.
The first-stage booster, which also flew for the first time, was able to land on SpaceX’s droneship, Just Read the Instructions, in the Atlantic Ocean.
It marks the 153rd time SpaceX has been able to recover a booster among both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
The launch keeps the Space Coast on its record pace, averaging more than one lift-off a week this year from either KSC or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and hitting 52 in just 47 weeks with as many as half a dozen more launches that could come before December 31.
Last year, the Space Coast saw 31 launches. SpaceX has managed the king’s share of those with its Falcon 9 rocket. Most send up the firm’s Starlink internet satellites but also provide the only human flights from the US with its Crew Dragon missions, of which the company flew three in 2022 with the Crew-4, Crew-5 and private Axiom-1 missions.
This is the second cargo Dragon flight of the year.