SpaceX Falcon 9 launched uncrewed Dragon on a cargo resupply services mission(CRS-30) to the international space station(ISS) from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on March 21, at 2055 UTC.
After a day and a half of orbital chase, Dragon autonomously docked to the zenith port of the space station's Harmony module at 1119 UTC(March 23), while flying 421 kilometers above the south Atlantic Ocean, just west of Africa. The docking was monitored by NASA astronauts Laurel O'Hara and Mike Barratt from inside the ISS Cupola module.
About 8 minutes after launch Thursday, Falcon 9's first stage booster came back to Earth as planned today, landing at SpaceX's Landing Zone-1(LZ-1), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It was the sixth launch and landing for the booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The CRS-30's Cargo Dragon capsule separated from the rocket's upper stage just under 12 minutes after launch and continued its day and half journey skyward to the space station. It will remain docked to the ISS for about five weeks before returning to Earth.
CRS-3 Dragon is delivering to ISS, 2,721 kilograms of scientific supplies, maintenance equipment, two new coffee kits, fresh fruits and vegetables and other food for the station's inhabitants.
In addition to materials to support ongoing research aboard the orbital laboratory, a number of new science investigations are also aboard CRS-30 to enrich our understanding of the effects of microgravity on a range of biological and technological processes.
The Nano Particle Haloing Suspension experiment, for example, will study nanoparticles' reaction to electrical fields, and their use to help synthesize semiconductor material known as "quantum dots," which holds the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of solar panel technology.
The Multi-resolution Scanner (MRS) experiment will utilize the existing autonomous Astrobee robots aboard the ISS to test 3D mapping technology. "The team has big plans for future applications [of this technology] in spaceflight," said Heidi Parris, associate program scientist at NASA's ISS Program Research Office. "If it works well inside the ISS, this technology could be developed to use for scanning of exterior hull damage on the ISS or other space stations, as well as lunar and Martian surface scanning."
Parris highlighted a number of other investigations during Tuesday's press call, including the APEX-09 experiment to examine the genetic makeup of plants in microgravity.
CRS-30 "is also going to launch research into many, many other areas, including cellular microbiology, crystal growth, astrophysics, human research, material science and much more," Parris said.
Also included in CRS-30 cargo, is a new spare pump stored in Dragon's trunk, which will be integrated into the space station's external thermal loop system.
This is SpaceX's 30th commercial resupply mission to the ISS. Unlike the other two currently operational cargo vehicles -- Northrup Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft and Russia's Progress vessel -- which are designed to burn up upon reentry, Dragon is capable of atmospheric reentry and recovery after a parachuted splashdown in the ocean.
CRS-30 was the first cargo launch from SLC-40 since March 2020. Since then, the pad has been outfitted with a new launch tower, which allows for more efficient cargo loading and upgrades the facility to support crewed launches as well.
Before the SLC-40 upgrades, "we loaded cargo while the vehicle was still horizontal using a mobile cleanroom before we would take the vehicle vertical for lunch, but thanks to this new state of the art crew tower, required for our human spaceflight missions, that late-load cargo operation got a massive upgrade, too," Sarah Walker, director of SpaceX Dragon mission management, said during a pre-launch press briefing on Tuesday (March 19).
"It's much easier to load a huge complement of time-critical NASA science into our Dragon spacecraft in the flight orientation," she added.
WATCH the launch and docking of CRS-30 mission Dragon.