SpaceX's Dragon CRS-17 Is Now Targeting For May 1 Launch

SpaceX has pushed back the launch of a Dragon cargo mission for NASA to the International Space Station from the original targeted launch date on April 30 to May 1 this year.

Credit: NASA

The uncrewed Dragon resupply ship is now targeting for Wednesday (May 1) launch to the International Space Station at 5:39 a.m. EDT (5:39 p.m. GMT+8) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to NASA and SpaceX. SpaceX had successfully test –fired the Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the resupply ship on Saturday (April 27).

“Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete – targeting May 1 launch from Pad 40 in Florida for Dragons seventeenth mission to the @Space_Station,” SpaceX representatives said in a Twitter update on the mission.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will race into the sky on Wednesday carrying more than 5,500 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station. A live coverage of the launch will be broadcasted through SpaceX’s website and NASA Television. This is the 17th SpaceX mission to resupply the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

According to NASA, SpaceX’s Dragon resupply ship will carry NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) and Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6).

OCO-3 will be installed robotically on the exterior of the Japanese Experimental Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to increase our understanding of the relationship between carbon dioxide and climate. The HTP-H6 is an X-ray communication investigation that will be used to perform a space-based demonstration of a new technology for generating beams of modulated X-rays. This technology may be useful for providing efficient communication to deep space probes, or communicating with hypersonic vehicles where plasma sheaths prevent traditional radio communications.

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