SpaceX Prepares Record Sixth Cargo Dragon Flight to ISS

SpaceX is getting ready to launch a Cargo Dragon loaded with 6,500 pounds of science and supplies to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday evening, weather permitting.

Liftoff of the CRS-34 mission, atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40, is scheduled for precisely 7:16:31 p.m. EDT, with the rocket flying on a northeasterly trajectory to target a rendezvous with the orbiting space station. This is SpaceX’s 34th mission for NASA as part of its Commercial Resupply Services contracts. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.

The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 35 percent chance for acceptable weather on Tuesday evening due to a slow moving front moving across the State of Florida. During a media briefing on Monday, Launch Weather Officer Brian Cizek said that the forecast has been trending worse these past few days. “The big difference in the forecast that weve seen today compared to the last few days is the models are really slowing down the progression of that front moving from north to south,” Cizek said. “So that will help pool more moisture over East Central Florida for tomorrow, which will lead to higher shower and storm coverage tomorrow afternoon into the evening hours.” He said as the week goes on, there’s a “slight drying trend,” which offers a better outlook on Wednesday and better still on Thursday.

SpaceX will launch the CRS-34 mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster B1096. This will be its sixth flight following the launches of NASA’s IMAP, GPS III-9, NROL-77, Kuiper Falcon 01, and Starlink Group 6-87. Less than eight minutes after liftoff, B1096 will return for a touchdown at Landing Zone 40 adjacent to the launch pad at SLC-40. This will be the fourth booster recovery at this site and the 74th landing across the three pads SpaceX has used since 2015.

This will also be the sixth flight for the Cargo Dragon spacecraft, serial number C209. It launched the CRS-22, -24, -27, -30, and -32 missions. This is the first time that a Cargo Dragon spacecraft will launch for a sixth time, but the second for the Dragon-2 program overall. The Crew Dragon Endeavour has already flown for a sixth time.

“We completed similar life extension qualification for the crew vehicles, reviewing all hardware components across the vehicle, and ensuring we had at least six-flight qualification rationale for the crew capsule,” said Lee Echerd, SpaceX’s senior mission manager for its Government and Commercial Mission Management division. “And then for the cargo qualification for this flight, it was essentially a delta certification with looking at the hardware items that are unique to the cargo configuration and completing a similar at least 6x qualification for for this mission.”

Cargo Dragon will separate from the Falcon 9 second stage about 9.5 minutes into the mission, kicking off a nearly 50-hour period during which the spacecraft plays catch up with the ISS. It’s set to dock with the orbiting outpost at about 9:50 a.m. EDT on Thursday, May 14. The arrival of the newest cargo spacecraft comes about two weeks before the next scheduled spacewalk on the Russian segment of the ISS.