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.