Tech & Science

SpaceX targets Wednesday, May 1 for Dragon cargo launch

Published

April 28, 2019

The uncrewed Dragon resupply ship will now launch to the ISS Wednesday at 3:59 a.m. EDT (0759 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. At this time, the weather is 80 percent “GO” for launch.

The resupply mission was originally scheduled to launch on April 26 before delays pushed it to early Tuesday morning and now Wednesday. The static fire test (a standard SpaceX activity before every launch), was successfully completed on Saturday.

“Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete — targeting May 1 launch from Pad 40 in Florida for Dragon’s seventeenth mission to the @Space_Station,” SpaceX representatives said in a Twitter update on the mission.

Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete—targeting May 1 launch from Pad 40 in Florida for Dragon’s seventeenth mission to the Space_Station

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2019

The change in the mission launch date also gave NASA and SpaceX more time to continue with their investigation into the accident that occurred on April 20 at the landing zone during testing of the abort engines for the crew version of the Dragon spacecraft.

With SpaceX’s 17th delivery flight to the ISS, the Dragon spacecraft will be carrying over 5,500 lbs. (2,495 kilograms) of fresh supplies, experiment hardware, and other gear to the Expedition 59 astronauts currently on the space station. After the initial launch, the Falcon rocket booster will land back on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” stationed just offshore, instead of Landing Zone 1 at the Cape.

Falcon Heavy center core booster completed a static fire test at our rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas ahead of its next mission → pic.twitter.com/1UK1EUSryT

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2019

In the meantime, SpaceX is also getting ready for another big mission – The next launch of its massive Falcon Heavy megarocket. Last week, SpaceX successfully test-fired the center core stage of the Falcon Heavy that will be used to launch the Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission for the U.S. Air Force. The current targeted launch date for the STP-2 mission is sometime in June, according to Spaceflight Now, while NASA and SpaceX were not so specific on a mission date.

In this article:cargo mission, Expedition 59, Iss, may 1, Spacex, static fire test

Written By Karen Graham

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.