The SpaceX Dragon Cargo ship now prepares for its another historic launch today. The cargo ship will blast off to bring food, science experiments, and supplies to astronauts in the International Space Station.
SpaceDaily reported that SpaceX Dragon Cargo ship is now ready to blast off for an 11th commercial resupply mission today at 5:55 pm and live on NASA's website. Based on the plan, the Dragon cargo ship will be propelled by Falcon 9 rocket into low-Earth. Afterward, the Dragon will connect with the ISS and should arrive on Sunday at 8:30 am (1230 GMT).
According to Space, the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship will deliver an equivalent weight of three tons comprised of foods, science experiments, and supplies. Among the contents are live mice to be a subject for the experiment to study the effects of osteoporosis. There are also fruit flies for a research on microgravity's impact on the heart, solar panels and other equipment to study neutron stars.
The Dragon cargo ship is SpaceX's first cargo ship that was refurbished after the September 2014 ISS cargo run. And the weather forecast during the launch date matches at 70 percent favorable condition for the Dragon cargo ship.
In a statement of SpaceX Vice President for Mission Assurance, Hans Koenigsmann he said that the inspection processes for the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship have been developed to make sure it is safe for flight. Furthermore, Koenigsmann added that although Dragon's splashdown in the ocean had some additional issues, still safety is the company's first concern.
To recall, reusing hardware is the main goal of SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk to save the cost of space travel so people can afford it someday. And the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is the recycled spaceship just as the Falcon 9.
Meanwhile, if the launching of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship will be postponed for any reason, another opportunity will open for launching on June 3. The Dragon cargo ship launch will be the 100th historic launchpad 39A of NASA starting from the Apollo missions to the moon. Also, it will be marked as SpaceX's 11th station resupply flight under the contract of $3.1 billion for 20-flight supply.
