NASA SpaceX CRS-6 Pre-Launch News Briefings
Today, a Falcon 9 rocket will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on the 6th SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Yesterday, NASA held three news briefings to discuss the mission and research on the ISS.
SpaceX Six Pre-Launch News Conference
SpaceX Pre-Launch News Conference was held at Kennedy’s Press Site at 5 p.m. and featured the following briefing participants:
– Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of Mission Assurance, SpaceX
– Dan Hartman, deputy International Space Station Program manager, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
– Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron.
The sixth SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract is scheduled to launch on Monday, April 13, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket will carry its Dragon cargo spacecraft filled with more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support about 40 of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 43 and 44.
After about five weeks at the space station, Dragon will return to Earth filled with more than 3,000 pounds of cargo including crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, and space station hardware.
ISS Science, Research and Technology Panel
An ISS Science, Research and Technology briefing was held at Kennedy’s Press Site at 1:30 p.m. and featured engineer and science participants including:
– Marshall Porterfield, director, Space Life and Physical Sciences, NASA Headquarters
– Kirt Costello, International Space Station deputy chief scientist, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
– Mike Roberts, senior research pathway manager, CASIS
– Noel Clark, principal investigator, Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands In Space (OASIS), University of Colorado
– Paola D. Pajevic, principal investigator, Osteocytes and Mechanomechano-transduction (Osteo-4), Harvard University
Science payloads will study new ways to possibly counteract the microgravity-induced cell damage seen during spaceflight, the effects of microgravity on the most common cells in bones, gather new insight that could lead to treatments for osteoporosis and muscle wasting conditions, continue studies into astronaut vision changes and test a new material that could one day be used as a synthetic muscle for robotics explorers of the future.
ISS National Lab Panel
An ISS National lab panel was held at Kennedy’s Press Site at 3:30 p.m. and featured the following panel participants:
– Kirt Costello, International Space Station deputy chief scientist, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
– Mike Roberts, senior research pathway manager, CASIS
– Paul Reichert, principal investigator, Protein Crystal Growth-3, Merck Research Laboratories
– Lenore Rasmussen, RasLabs, Synthetic Muscle for Prosthetics and Robotics.
Science payloads will study new ways to possibly counteract the microgravity-induced cell damage seen during spaceflight, the effects of microgravity on the most common cells in bones, gather new insight that could lead to treatments for osteoporosis and muscle wasting conditions, continue studies into astronaut vision changes and test a new material that could one day be used as a synthetic muscle for robotics explorers of the future.
After about five weeks at the space station, Dragon will return to Earth filled with more than 3,000 pounds of cargo including crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, and space station hardware.
