CRS-29: SpaceX Launches Dragon Cargo Resupply Mission To The Space Station

SpaceX Dragon launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 0128 UTC on Nov. 10, on its way to the rocket company's 29th robotic cargo resupply services mission(CRS-29) to the International Space Station. The Dragon will arrive at the ISS around 1020 UTC on Saturday (Nov. 11).

Falcon 9 first stage made a successful landing, minutes after liftoff, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1). The launch marked the second flight for this particular booster, which previously launched Crew-7.

Dragon CRS-29 carries more than 2,950 kilograms of supplies and scientific hardware on this run, including a variety of food including some seasonal specialties.

"We've got some fun holiday treats for the crew, like chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccino, rice cakes, turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce and mochi," Dana Weigel, deputy program manager for NASA's International Space Station Program, said during a media call on Wednesday.

CRS-29 cargo also includes NASA's AWE(Atmospheric Waves Experiment)  and ILLUMA-T(Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) experiments..

AWE will study gravity waves, disturbances in Earth's atmosphere akin to the waves created when a pebble plunks into a pond. (Gravity waves are very different than gravitational waves, which are ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by the acceleration of massive objects such as black holes and neutron stars.)

ILLUMA-T will test high-speed communications in collaboration with NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission, which launched in December 2021.

After ILLUMA-T is installed on the exterior of the ISS and checked out, it will begin tracking and communicating with LCRD, a ride-along instrument on a U.S. Department of Defense satellite that resides in geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers) above Earth. The ISS, by contrast, circles at an average altitude of about 250 miles (400 km).

Together, ILLUMA-T and LCRD will "create NASA's first two-way laser communications relay system," agency officials wrote in an overview of CRS-29's science gear. "Laser communications can supplement the radio frequency systems that most space-based missions currently use to send data to and from Earth. The ILLUMA-T demonstration also paves the way for placing laser communications terminals on spacecraft orbiting the moon or Mars."

According to NASA officials, CRS-29 Dragon will spend about a month docked to the ISS on, then come back to Earth with about 1,724 kg of cargo.

WATCH SpaceX launch of CRS-29 mission to ISS