NASA, SpaceX Set October 7 as Next Dragon Flight to ISS
NASA and SpaceX have set October 7, 2012 as the first operational launch of the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.
SpaceX completed a final test flight of its Dragon capsule aboard its Falcon 9 launch vehicle in May, opening the way to 12 contracted operational flights over the next three years.
NASA and SpaceX jointly fund this “commercial cargo” program as a public-private partnership to take cargo to the ISS. NASA does not have its own capability to send cargo — or crews — to the ISS since the space shuttle program was terminated last year.
Launch of this mission, designated CRS-1, is scheduled for 8:34 am ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A backup launch date is October 8. Dragon will take about 1,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS crew and return 734 pounds of results from scientific experiments plus 504 pounds of space station hardware to Earth.
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