CRS-30 is the first cargo mission to launch from Pad-40 since March, 2020.

Welcome back to Pad-40!

SpaceX and NASA are moving toward the launch of company's 30th commercial resupply services mission (CRS-30) to the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an uncrewed SpaceX Cargo Dragon is scheduled for Thursday, March 21, at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT) from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) AT Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida.

This will be the first cargo launch from SLC-40 in four years, following the completion of the facility's new launch tower, which includes a crew access arm. The upgrades allow crewed launches from SLC-40, and increases SpaceX's flexibility when scheduling astronaut launches.

The Cargo Dragon will spend about two days catching up to the ISS, rendezvousing with the station on Saturday (March 23). ISS crew members Matt Dominic and Mike Barrett are scheduled to oversee Dragon's docking, according to Kristi Duplichen, deputy manager of NASA's International Space Station Transportation Integration Office, during a press call March 19.

CRS-30 is carrying over 6,000 pounds (2,721 kilograms) of research supplies, station equipment and food for the inhabitants of the orbital lab. Of special interest amongst that food includes citrus, apples, cherry tomatoes and two new coffee kits. "The crew requested those," said Duplichen during Tuesday's call, "we're making sure to get them some fresh coffee."

Cargo also includes several new science investigations headed to the ISS to help us further understand how microgravity affects a wide number of processes both biological and technological.

Source:
courtesy of SPACE

by Josh Dinner

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