Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for liftoff of the 29th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida, scheduled for 8:28 p.m. EST on Thursday, November 9. The primary weather concern is the thick cloud layers rule.
Packed with more than 6,500 pounds of cargo, SpaceX’s Dragon will deliver scientific research, technology demonstrations, crew supplies, and hardware to the International Space Station to support its Expedition 70 crew. Included in the cargo is NASA’s Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T), which will demonstrate the use of laser communications systems to transmit data in space. and Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE), which is designed to study bands of light in Earth’s atmosphere and improve our understanding of space weather in the upper atmosphere.
Arrival to the station is scheduled for approximately 5:20 a.m. EST on Saturday, November 11. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
The spacecraft is expected to spend about one month attached to the orbiting laboratory before it returns to Earth with research and about 3,800 pounds of return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
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