SpaceX CRS-9, also known as SpX-9, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

which launched on 18 July 2016. The mission was contracted by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and was operated by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

using a

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

capsule. The cargo was successfully carried aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 Flight 27.

Launch and operations history

A July 2014 NASA Flight Planning Integration Panel (FPIP) presentation had this mission scheduled no earlier than (NET) 7 December 2015. By December 2014, the launch had been pushed back to NET 9 December 2015. Following the failure of SpaceX CRS-7 on 28 June 2015, the launch date was left open and, in September 2015, was moved to NET 21 March 2016. The flight was later pushed to 24 June, 27 June, 16 July, and finally 18 July 2016, as the crewed mission Soyuz MS-01 took the 24 June slot. CRS-9 launched on 18 July 2016 at 04:44

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

from

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

SLC-40 aboard a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

launch vehicle. After 9 minutes and 37 seconds the Dragon spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket, and deployed its solar arrays about two minutes later. The opening of its GNC door came two hours later, enabling orbital operations. After a series or orbital maneuvers and stationkeeping at different hold points, the CRS-9 Dragon was captured by the ISS's

Canadarm2 The Mobile Servicing System (MSS) is a robotic system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Launched to the ISS in 2001, it plays a key role in station assembly and maintenance; it moves equipment and supplies around the station, suppo ...

on 20 July 2016 at 10:56 UTC. After robotic operations, it was berthed some three hours later at 14:03 UTC. In preparation for recovery, the Dragon capsule was loaded with of experiments and no-longer-needed equipment and, on 25 August 2016 at 21:00 UTC, it was unberthed and stowed in an overnight parking position away from the station. Dragon was released from Canadarm2 the following day at 10:11 UTC. After maneuvering away from the station, Dragon conducted a re-entry burn at 14:56 UTC and successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean at 15:47 UTC, approximately southwest of

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

Primary payload

NASA contracted for the CRS-9 mission from SpaceX and therefore determined the primary payload, date/time of launch, and

orbital parameters Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same o ...

for the Dragon

space capsule A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Capsules are distinguished from other spacecraft by the ability to survive reentry and return a payload to the Earth's surfa ...

. CRS-9 carried of cargo to the International Space Station. Amongst its pressurized cargo was of material supporting about 250 science and research experiments, of crew supplies, of spacecraft hardware, of extravehicular activity equipment, of computer equipment, and of Russian hardware. Its unpressurized cargo, the

International Docking Adapter The International Docking Adapter (IDA) is a spacecraft docking system adapter developed to convert APAS-95 to support docking with spacecraft that implement the International Docking System Standard. The IDA uses NASA Docking System (NDS) hard ...

-2 located in Dragon's trunk, massed . Some of the key experiments transported by CRS-9 to the ISS were the Biomolecule Sequencer, which performed

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The ...

in orbit; the Phase Change Heat Exchanger, which tested

temperature regulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

systems for future spacecraft applications; the OsteoOmics experiment, which tested if Earth-based

magnetic levitation Magnetic levitation (maglev) or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is levitation (physics), suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Lorentz force, Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitation ...

can properly simulate microgravity conditions; and the Heart Cells experiment from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, which examined the effects of microgravity on the human heart at the cellular and molecular level using human

induced pluripotent stem cell Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi in Kyoto, Jap ...

-derived

cardiomyocytes Cardiac muscle (also called heart muscle or myocardium) is one of three types of vertebrate muscle tissues, the others being skeletal muscle and smooth muscle. It is an involuntary, striated muscle that constitutes the main tissue of the wall of ...

First stage landing

Following stage separation, the rocket's first stage performed a boostback maneuver and landed smoothly at

Landing Zone 1 Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station used by SpaceX. They allow the company to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket or the two side boost ...

, for the second time on solid ground, following

Falcon 9 Flight 20 Falcon 9 flight 20 (also known as Orbcomm OG2 M2) was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on 22 December 2015 at 01:29:00 UTC (21 December, 8:29:00 pm local time). It was the first time that the first stage of an orbital rocket made a success ...

in December 2015.

Gallery

References

External links