In just under 15 minutes, the Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin engines will roar to life, sending the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft on its journey to the International Space Station for SpaceX’s 22nd commercial resupply services mission. By now, the rocket has been fueled with liquid oxygen and RP-1 – rocket-grade kerosene.
In the next few minutes, the Falcon 9’s engines will begin to chill, preparing them for launch. At five minutes before launch, Dragon will transition to internal power, and a few minutes after that, the command flight computer will begin its final pre-launch checks. At about T-45 seconds, the SpaceX launch director will verify “go” for launch. As a reminder, liftoff is targeted for 1:29 p.m. EDT.
Dragon will deliver critical materials that will support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 65 and 66. To learn more about station activities, follow @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.