Space station-bound Dragon supply capsule filled with everything from experiments to coffee

Space station-bound Dragon supply capsule filled with everything from experiments to coffee
by Mark Moran
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 21, 2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida on Thursday with a Dragon cargo capsule filled with supplies and experiments for the International Space Station.

The launch from Cape Canaveral was SpaceX's 30th commercial supply mission. It is ferrying food, supplies and research equipment to Crew-8, which arrived at the ISS earlier this month.

Also aboard the supply craft are experiments, including those that will study plant metabolism, the physics of fluid that could benefit solar cell technology, and information that will help researchers study and understand sea ice and ocean conditions.

Also aboard Dragon will be food. But Crew-8 will enjoy more than standard, freeze-dried space food. There will be a fresh food kit, including citrus, apples and cherry tomatoes among the 6,000 pounds of cargo aboard the Dragon.

Some food cargo is being awaited more eagerly than other items aboard the Dragon capsule.

"They have two coffee kits, which I would probably be the most excited about," Heidi Parris, associate program scientist at NASA's International Space Station Program Research Office, said during a Tuesday afternoon media conference. "The crew requested those, so we're making sure we get them some fresh coffee."

The astronauts, themselves, will be the subjects of some of the onboard experiments being sent to the space station. Researchers will be collecting information to study a variety of health topics, including age-related diseases and mental-health issues.

Researchers also will study printing cardiac tissue, antibiotic resistance in space, and how the human brain adapts to extreme conditions, according to NASA.

They also will be studying the effect of spaceflight on human eyes, because space travel is thought to mimic oxidated age-related diseases, such as macular degeneration.

Addressing this problem would lead to further understanding about safe human space travel over long durations but also potentially offer treatment for patients on Earth, too.

The resupply mission also is carrying a new camera, which is expected to provide highly detailed images of Earth.

The Dragon is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.