SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida tonight (July 14), sending a Dragon robotic resupply ship to the International Space Station (ISS).
The mission, known as CRS-25, lifted off tonight at 8:44 p.m. EDT (0044 GMT July 15) from KSC’s Launch Complex 39A. The two stages of Falcon 9 allocated 2.5 minutes in flight. As the rocket’s second stage lifted Dragon into orbit, the main booster began its return to Earth, safely landing on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas unmanned craft in the Atlantic Ocean about 7.5 minutes after launch.
The Dragon will spend the next day and a half catching up to the ISS. The cargo capsule is scheduled to dock with the orbiting lab around 11:20 a.m. EDT (1520 GMT) on Saturday morning (July 16).
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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas shortly after landing on July 14, 2022. (Image: NASA TV)
The CRS-25 was originally scheduled to launch more than a month ago, but the liftoff was then postponed high levels of hydrazine vapor were discovered in part of Dragon’s propulsion system during refueling operations. Hydrazine is used by Dragon’s Draco thrusters and is highly corrosive to components not intended to interact with the propellant. NASA and SpaceX therefore took a cautious approach, subjecting the vehicle to extensive research after the fumes were detected, ultimately postponing the launch three times over several weeks.
In a statement released June 28, NASA cited “ongoing inspections of Dragon spacecraft, as well as repair and replacement of any components that could be degraded by exposure to mono-methylhydrazine (MMH) vapors found during testing in early June,” as the reason for the string of delays. SpaceX crews also replaced the vehicle’s main parachutes to do a more thorough inspection of the potentially affected parachute.
The senior director of SpaceX’s human spaceflight program, Benjamin Reed, joined the press on Wednesday night (July 13) and expressed optimism about the preliminary tests the parachutes have passed. “So far the initial results of some checks are coming in and the original parachutes look great,” Reid said. “[SpaceX] will likely use these in a future mission if the team decides they are safe to use for flight,” he added.
CRS-25 will deliver more than 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of science and supplies to the space station, including equipment to support nearly 40 ongoing investigations. Current ISS residents can also expect a delivery of fresh food, according to ISS Deputy Program Manager Dana Weigel, who joined the call on Wednesday. Weigel listed a variety of products and other items tucked away in Dragon.
“We send apples, oranges, cherry tomatoes, some onions, baby carrots, garlic, tahini, cheese and dry sausage,” Weigel said. “So, a really nice combination of fresh fruit for the crew.”
By weight, science equipment makes up roughly half of CRS-25’s total payload. One of the mission’s grand experiments—both in physical size and project scope—is the investigation of the Earth’s Surface Mineral Dust Source (EMIT). The device rides in the Dragon’s trunk and is about the size of a kitchen oven. EMIT will be added to the ISS as an external payload and used to measure the mineral composition of dust in the driest regions of the planet, NASA officials said.
EMIT will focus on how dust from some of Earth’s arid landscapes is carried by winds across the globe, adding to the planet’s overall climate system in ways that are not yet fully understood. Measuring the minerals in these samples will help scientists better understand their composition and role in the global climate, ultimately contributing to things like weather forecasting, improved crop yields and other climate research.
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NASA’s ISS associate scientist Heidi Parris said scientists currently have access to about 5,000 such measurements. “They’re looking to grow our current set of measurements … to somewhere close to 1 billion measurements,” Parris said in a press call on Wednesday. EMIT “really has the potential to fill a gap in our understanding of Earth’s climate patterns.”
Other experiments on their way to the orbiting laboratory include a study of biopolymer concrete to study the formation of the building material in microgravity using “in situ” resources comparable to lunar regolith or Martian dust. Another study, known as the immunosenescence study, will examine the effects of aging on the ability of cells to repair tissues in the body and the possibility of reversing these effects in astronauts after spaceflight.
CRS-25 — so named because it’s the 25th cargo mission SpaceX has launched for NASA — is scheduled to stay docked to the ISS for 33 days. The spacecraft will return to Earth with almost as much cargo as it was sent. Samples and equipment from up to 50 research studies, as well as waste and other scattered supplies from the station’s life cycle, will be stowed aboard Dragon before the vehicle lifts off from the ISS.
The Dragon will also bring home a spacesuit worn by European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer. The suit suffered a water leak during a spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), that Maurer undertook on March 23 of this year.
“That will be part of what we need for our assessment of our eventual readiness as we look to move back to nominal EVAs,” Weigel said on the call Wednesday.
Both vehicles launched tonight were spaceflight veterans. CRS-25 is the third cargo mission of this Dragon capsule to the ISS, and the Falcon 9 first stage has flown five times before tonight.
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