A brand new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:29 p.m. EDT (1729 GMT) with a cargo load of supplies and other gear for the International Space Station.
The two-stage launcher will blast off from Pad 39 lofting a robotic Dragon cargo capsule carrying more than 7,300 lbs. (3,311 kilograms) of fresh supplies, experiment hardware, and two new solar arrays for the station’s power grid, according to Space.com.
Included in the cargo is a special delivery – 128 glow-in-the-dark baby bob-tail squid and 5,000 tiny tardigrades, or water bears – microscopic animals able to tolerate extreme environments.
“Animals, including humans, rely on our microbes to maintain a healthy digestive and immune system. We do not fully understand how spaceflight alters these beneficial interactions,” Jamie Foster, the experiment’s principal investigator said, reports the BBC.
She added that the squid will be able to address “these important issues in animal health.” The squid will be frozen before they return to Earth.
Because the microscopic Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme conditions, they will be used for studies on how life responds and adapts to extreme environments.
“One of the things we are really keen to do is understand how tardigrades are surviving and reproducing in these environments and whether we can learn anything about the tricks that they are using and adapt them to safeguard astronauts,” Thomas Boothby, the experiment’s principal investigator said.
The animal life is but a small part of the 7,300 pounds of cargo heading to the space station. Also onboard is the ISS Roll-out Solar Array (iROSA), innovative solar panels designed by Redwire that roll out like a red carpet. This is just the first pair of the arrays that will be going to the ISS.
You can watch the launch live on this page and here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA. You can also watch directly via NASA TV or SpaceX’s launch webcast page. NASA’s webcast will begin at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT) with live launchpad views followed by launch commentary at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). SpaceX’s webcast will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff.