SpaceX CRS-6 Mission to ISS Tries Again Today at 4:10pm EDT

Yesterday’s planned launch of the SpaceX CRS-6 mission had to be canceled. The new launch opportunity is today at 4:10pm EDT.

After 6 successful missions to the International Space Station, including 5 official resupply missions for NASA, SpaceX is set to launch its 6th official Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting lab. The SpaceX CRS-6 mission is set to launch today at 4:10pm EDT Monday, April 14 from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Yesterday’s attempt had to be scrubbed for weather.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will bring the Dragon spacecraft into space again. If all goes as planned, Dragon will arrive at the station approximately two days after liftoff.

Dragon is expected to return to Earth approximately five weeks later for a parachute – assisted splashdown off the coast of southern California. Dragon is the only operational spacecraft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies back to Earth, including experiments.

SpaceX will again attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship. This is going to be again the most exciting moment of the mission. The landing attempt happens about 9 minutes after launch. This means the rocket should land at 4:19pm EDT.

The Dragon spacecraft will be filled with more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support about 40 of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 43 and 44.

Science payloads being transported will investigate new ways to possibly counteract the microgravity – induced cell damage , including to the most common cells in bones, seen during spaceflight, gather new insight that could lead to treatments for osteoporosis is 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. One science payload will support an investigation on the vision changes that more than half of American astronauts experience during and after long duration spaceflight.

It is hypothesized that the headward fluid shift that occurs during space flight leads to increased pressure in the brain, which /4/push on the back of the eye, causing it to change shape. The study will measure how much fluid shifts from the lower body to the upper body, in or out of cells and blood vessels, and determine the impact these shifts have on fluid pressure in the head, changes in vision and eye structures.

After five weeks at the space station, the spacecraft will return with over 3,000 pounds of cargo and packaging, including crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, space station hardware and trash.

Today’s SpaceX mission marks the half-way mark of the CRS contract with NASA. The 2009 started contract is for 12 missions to the ISS.

The NASA television coverage of the SpaceX launch will begin Monday at 3:30 p.m.