SpaceX, NASA Launch Dragon’s 29th Robotic Cargo Mission to the ISS

Yesterday, November 9th (at 8.28pm EST), SpaceX‘s reusable, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft’s 29th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-29) to the International Space Station (ISS) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Courtesy of NASA. NASA’s SpaceX 29th commercial resupply mission launched at 8:28 p.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 9, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Landing Zone (LZ-1). Dragon is expected to autonomously dock with the space station on Saturday, November 11 at approximately 5:20 a.m. ET.

Dragon is carrying more than 6,500 pounds (2,950 kilograms) of supplies and scientific hardware for NASA on this mission to the ISS, including NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) and Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) experiments.

AWE will study gravity waves, which are essentially disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere. ILLUMA-T will test high-speed communications in collaborations with NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission (launched in December 2021).

Together, ILLUMA-T and LCRD will create NASA’s first two-way laser communications system, according to space.com. Laser communications can supplement the radio frequency systems that most space-based missions currently use to send data to and from Earth, according to
NASA’s CRS-29 mission overview.