Dragon Takes Off for ISS with Goodies in Tow

An uncrewed Dragon resupply ship with 6,500 lbs of cargo launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on November 9th, docking with the International Space Station on the 11th to cap off another successful operation for SpaceX.

The Dragon carried the usual combination of living supplies, scientific experiments, and tech demonstrations. Continued work on botanicals, combustible fuel calibration, and tissue growth made it aboard this time, along with some nifty new optical comms gear and atmospheric measurement equipment. NASA gave a mini-manifest of sorts upon the initial launch, providing a brief bite-sized synopsis of the most cogent projects while onlookers awaited the automatic docking sequence.

“The SpaceX Dragon will deliver NASA’s ILLUMA-T (Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), which aims to test high data rate laser communications from the space station to Earth via the agency’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration), as well as the agency’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment), which studies atmospheric gravity waves to understand the flow of energy through Earth’s upper atmosphere and space.”

In addition, the European Space Agency tendered some new water filtration technology which “continues evaluation of replacing the multi-filtration beds used for water recovery on the space station with a type of membrane known as an Aquaporin Inside Membrane.” Should they function as intended, the results could “advance development of a complete and full-scale membrane-based water recovery system, improving water reclamation and reducing the amount of material that needs to be launched to the space station.” As with most everything on the ISS, any successful tech in orbit can trickle back down to Earth for use in other industries too. In this case, Aquamembrane-3 could find itself in use in water recovery systems around the globe.

FMI: www.nasa.gov