Launching On Sunday, The Dragon Brings With 4,800 lbs Of Support

Following a weather hold, come Sunday, August 29th, 3:14 EDT, SpaceX plans to launch the Dragon to resupply the ISS. It carries with it plenty of payloads for the astronauts living onboard to investigate.

"We're really excited to partner with SpaceX for this mission," Joel Montalbano, NASA's ISS program manager said. "We're using these [resupply] missions to optimize the science and utilization that we do on board space station, as well as increasing the amount of exploration, technology development we can do to support us for future missions."

The capsule will contain 4,800 pounds of supplies and science investigations. These supplies will support experiments in the life sciences, pharmaceuticals and many other fields. 

APEX-08, is an investigation that will help with studying plant stress in microgravity environments. Researchers will grow Arabidopsis thaliana, a type of thale cress plant that scientists regularly use for research. The information learned will be used to assist in the process for growing food on long range space missions in the future.

Scientists are better trying to understand the notable vision changes that astronauts experience in space. Inside the payload will be a device from Claudia Stern, an ophthalmologist and flight surgeon for the German Aerospace Center, intended to better measure these changes and understand why they happen.

A group of biologists, led by Dr. Fabio Peluso, are sending stem cells to the ISS to better understand bone regeneration in microgravity. In this study, the aim is to determine if a mixture of collagen and metabolites from grapes can help aid in bone repair. 

 A group of Cubesats  will be heading to the ISS, including Puerto Rico’s first satellite called PRCuNaR2. This project has been in the works for 13 years and designed by Dr. Amilcar Rincon-Charris and his students at International American University in PR. The research in this project hopes to help better understand formation of structures like planetary bodies and Saturn’s rings.

Nanoracks, alongside GITAI robotics of Japan, is sending a robotic arm to space to perform tasks that astronauts would normally handle such as switching on and off lights and turning door knobs. Ground Controllers will be in charge of manning the robot for abnormalities, and handle delegating the daily chores it will perform. 

FMI: www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/