EFE.- NASA set for Saturday, August 28, the date of the next supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) through a Dragon capsule from the private firm SpaceX.
A Falcon 9 rocket, with the cargo capsule at its peak, will take off around 3:37 a.m. (2:37 a.m. Mexico time) that day from a platform at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida (USA). ), as reported by the US aerospace agency.
What will be the twenty-third commercial supply mission of the orbital laboratory will transport a variety of scientific material and supplies to the ISS.
This will allow NASA to carry out, among others, “a study on the prevention and treatment of bone density loss, an investigation that will test diagnostic devices that could detect and mitigate vision disorders,” as explained in his blog .
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The capsule will also carry materials such as “concrete, fiberglass composites and substances that can offer protection against radiation. to investigate how they respond to the harsh environment of space ”.
The cargo Dragon will take off after NASA and Boeing announced the indefinite suspension of the second test mission of the Starliner capsule, after being discovered shortly before its takeoff for the ISS, scheduled for the beginning of this month, a problem in 13 valves of its propulsion system.
After a study of the problem, the engineers decided to disassemble the capsule of the Atlas V rocket to transfer it to a ship where they would open four of those valves that were still closed, and to carry out a “deep analysis” of the problem.
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The suspension of the mission, called OFT-2, was a serious setback for Boeing, which faced great expectations around this second test flight of the unmanned capsule, after a failed mission in 2019.
Boeing and SpaceX have million-dollar contracts with NASA to handle the transfer of astronauts and equipment to the space station from American soil.
SpaceX has already taken two manned missions to the ISS, to which is added a test with astronauts, in addition to several cargo in its Dragon capsules.
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