Editor’s Note: This bulletin was updated on December 20, 2023, to reflect that NASA and SpaceX are currently aiming to undocking no earlier than 5:05 PM ET on Thursday, December 21. The company launched its 29th Dragon Commercial Resupply Services mission from the International Space Station due to unfavorable weather in the splashdown zone off the coast of Florida.
NASA and its international partners will receive scientific research samples and hardware when the SpaceX Dragon cargo and supply vehicle departs the International Space Station on Thursday, December 21.
The agency will provide live reports of the Dragon spacecraft’s undocking and departure on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app starting at 4:45 p.m. ET. The coverage will also be broadcast live on NASA TV, YouTube and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV shows on a variety of platforms, including social media.
After receiving orders from SpaceX ground controllers in Hawthorne, California, Dragon will detach from the Harmony space station at 9:05 p.m., start its thrusters, and move away from the station at a safe distance.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida. NASA will not broadcast the splashdown event, but updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.
Dragon will return to Earth carrying more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and science experiments designed to take advantage of the space station’s microgravity environment. The splashdown on the Florida coast allows rapid transport of the experiment to NASA’s Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, allowing researchers to collect data with minimal exposure of the sample to Earth’s gravity.
Scientific hardware and samples returned to Earth include Planet Habitat-03, which evaluates whether genetic adaptations from one generation of plants grown in space can be transferred to the next. This is one of the first multi-generational plant biology studies to be conducted in orbit.
Other research includes the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Cellular Gravity Sensing, a study of how cells sense and respond to the effects of gravity. The results could lead to the development of drugs to treat muscle wasting and osteoporosis.
Also returning to Dragon is Genes from Space-10, a student-led project testing a method to measure in orbit the length of telomeres, the cap-like structures at the ends of DNA strands, as It shortens with age but has been found to lengthen in space.
In addition, samples from MaRVIn-PCIM (Microgravity Research for Multipurpose Research – Phase Transformation of Mixtures) and Neuronix (Innovative Paralysis Therapy for Nerve Regeneration) will also be returned to Earth for scientific analysis.
Dragon arrived at the space station on November 11, SpaceX’s 29th commercial resupply mission for NASA, transporting approximately 6,500 pounds of research surveys, crew supplies and space station hardware. The spacecraft was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Launch Complex 39A on November 9 using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
These are just a few of the hundreds of studies currently underway at the orbiting laboratory, in the fields of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space sciences. Advances in these areas will help astronauts stay healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate future human and robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars beyond low Earth orbit through NASA’s Artemis program.
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Learn more about the International Space Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/
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Julian Colter
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center in Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Image Source : www.nasa.gov