CRS-34 Dragon launches to ISS May 15, delivering science experiments

NASA and SpaceX launched the CRS-34 cargo mission to the International Space Station on Friday, May 15, sending a Dragon spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral after weather delays pushed the flight back from earlier launch attempts. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 6:05 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to NASA and SpaceX. Dragon is carrying nearly 6,500 pounds of cargo for the station’s Expedition 74 crew. (nasa.gov) This is NASA’s 34th Commercial Resupply Services mission flown by SpaceX under the agency’s cargo contract for the station. The mission uses a Cargo Dragon spacecraft that SpaceX says is flying for the sixth time; it previously supported CRS-22, CRS-24, CRS-27, CRS-30 and CRS-32. The first-stage booster on this flight was also making its sixth trip, and SpaceX said it landed at Landing Zone 40 after stage separation. (nasa.gov) The cargo load is notable less for crew provisions than for the research packed inside. NASA said the manifest includes ODYSSEY, which will compare bacterial behavior in actual microgravity with results from Earth-based microgravity simulators; Green Bone, which will study bone-cell growth on a wood-based scaffold that researchers say could inform treatments for brittle-bone conditions such as osteoporosis; and hardware to examine how red blood cells and the spleen change in space. (nasa.gov) NASA also said Dragon is carrying STORIE, an instrument meant to monitor charged particles around Earth that can affect satellites and power grids, along with Laplace, an investigation into how dust particles move and collide in microgravity. The agency said another payload will measure sunlight reflected by Earth and the Moon with high accuracy. (nasa.gov) A separate ISS National Laboratory-sponsored investigation on the flight, called POLARIS, will expose microbes from Antarctica and Chile to the space environment for about six months using the MISSE Flight Facility mounted outside the station. Jenny Blamey, the project’s principal investigator and scientific director at Fundación Científica y Cultural Biociencia, said the team hopes the work will show how life survives in extreme environments and whether those mechanisms could support future exploration and industrial uses. (issnationallab.org) The timing matters because cargo Dragon is one of the few station vehicles that can bring substantial research samples back to Earth. NASA said CRS-34 is scheduled to remain at the outpost until mid-June, when it will depart with time-sensitive research and other cargo before splashing down off the coast of California. (nasa.gov) The next milestone comes Sunday, May 17, when Dragon is scheduled to dock autonomously to the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at about 7 a.m. EDT. NASA said live rendezvous and docking coverage is set to begin at 5:30 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime and the agency’s YouTube channel. (nasa.gov)