Month: May 2022

NASA to Launch Small Satellites on Next SpaceX Cargo Mission

Middle schoolers are sending their science fair project to space, one of five CubeSats on a ride-share on a Commercial Resupply Services, CRS-25. The CapSat-1 team are three 7th-grade students from the Weiss School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Middle schoolers are sending their science fair project to space, one of five CubeSats on a ride-share on the 25th Commercial Resupply Services, CRS-25. The CapSat-1 team are three 7th-grade students from the Weiss School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Photo credit: Weiss School

Editor’s Note: As of Monday, June 6, NASA and SpaceX are no longer targeting Friday, June 10, for launch, and these events are not current. A new advisory will be provided later. Follow the latest mission updates on the agency’s International Space Station blog.

NASA’s Launch Services Program is preparing to send five CubeSats to the International Space Station as part of the ELaNa 45 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) mission aboard SpaceX’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-25) mission for NASA. Liftoff is scheduled for June 7 from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The small satellites were selected through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, which provides low-cost access to space for U.S. educational institutions, NASA centers, and others to develop and demonstrate novel technologies in space and to inspire and grow the next generation of scientists, engineers, and technologists.

The CubeSats were developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; The Weiss School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida; and the University of South Alabama in Mobile. The CubeSats will be deployed from the space station.

NASA has selected over 200 CubeSat missions from more than 100 unique organizations representing 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico through the CubeSat Launch Initiative since 2010. To date, 134 CubeSat missions have launched into space through ELaNa rideshare opportunities.

Media Accreditation Now Open for SpaceX’s 25th Cargo Launch to Station

Media accreditation is now open for SpaceX’s 25th cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station. Liftoff of the cargo Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket is targeted for 11:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, June 7, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including a study of immune aging and potential for reversing those effects. It also will carry an investigation from a team of students at Stanford University that will test the process of creating biopolymer soil composite, a concrete alternative, in microgravity.

Media prelaunch and launch activities will take place at Kennedy. International media must apply by Monday, May 9, and U.S. media must apply by Thursday, May 19. Media wishing to take part in person must apply for credentials at https://media.ksc.nasa.gov.

Other studies launching include an investigation looking at the behavior of sutures and wound healing in microgravity, as well as one studying how soil microorganisms function in space. Dragon’s external cargo “trunk” will carry the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument and a Battery Charge/Discharge Unit as part of an investigation led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The EMIT instrument will be installed on the exterior of the space station to map mineral dust blown into the air on Earth to advance our understanding of dust’s effects throughout the Earth system and to human populations now and in the future.

For a link to the full media advisory, click here.