First Contracted SpaceX Resupply Mission Launches with NASA Cargo to Space Station

Oct. 7, 2012

Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-355

FIRST CONTRACTED SPACEX RESUPPLY MISSION LAUNCHES WITH NASA CARGO TO SPACE STATION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
(SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket carrying its Dragon spacecraft lifted off
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:35 p.m. EDT
Sunday, beginning NASA's first contracted cargo delivery flight,
designated SpaceX CRS-1, to the International Space Station. Under
NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract, SpaceX will fly at
least 12 cargo missions to the space station through 2016. The
contract is worth $1.6 billion.

The Dragon spacecraft will be grappled at 7:22 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct.
10, by Expedition 33 crew members Sunita Williams of NASA and Aki
Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who will use the
station's robotic arm to install the Dragon. The capsule is scheduled
to spend 18 days attached to the station. It then will return for a
splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California.


"Just over one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we have
returned space station cargo resupply missions to U.S. soil and are
bringing the jobs associated with this work back to America," NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The SpaceX launch tonight marks
the official start of commercial resupply missions by American
companies operating out of U.S. spaceports like the one right here in
Florida."

Dragon is delivering a total of 882 pounds of supplies to the orbiting
laboratory, including 260 pounds of crew supplies, 390 pounds of
scientific research, 225 pounds of hardware and several pounds of
other supplies. Dragon will return a total of 1,673 pounds of
supplies, including 163 pounds of crew supplies, 866 pounds of
scientific research, 518 pounds of vehicle hardware and other
hardware.

Dragon's capability to return cargo from the station is critical for
supporting scientific research in the orbiting laboratory's unique
microgravity environment, which enables important benefits for
humanity and vastly increases understanding of how humans can safely
work, live and thrive in space for long periods. The ability to
return frozen samples is a first for this flight and will be
tremendously beneficial to the station's research community. Not
since the space shuttle have NASA and its international partners been
able to return considerable amounts of research and samples for
analysis.

Materials being launched on Dragon will support experiments in plant
cell biology, human biotechnology and various materials technology
demonstrations, among others. One experiment, called Micro 6, will
examine the effects of microgravity on the opportunistic yeast
Candida albicans, which is present on all humans. Another experiment,
called Resist Tubule, will evaluate how microgravity affects the
growth of cell walls in a plant called Arabidopsis. About 50 percent
of the energy expended by terrestrial-bound plants is dedicated to
structural support to overcome gravity. Understanding how the genes
that control this energy expenditure operate in microgravity could
have implications for future genetically modified plants and food
supply. Both Micro 6 and Resist Tubule will return with the Dragon at
the end of its mission.

SpaceX is one of two companies that built and tested new cargo
spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
(COTS) program. SpaceX completed its final demonstration test in May
when it flew to the station and performed a series of checkout
maneuvers, ultimately being grappled by the station crew and
installed on the complex.

Orbital Sciences is the other company participating in COTS. Orbital's
Antares launch vehicle is currently on the launch pad at Wallops
Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch vehicle and pad will undergo
a series of fueling tests that will take about three weeks. After
tests are completed, a hot fire test will be conducted. Finally, a
test flight of the Antares rocket with a simulated Cygnus spacecraft
will be flown in late 2012. A demonstration flight of Cygnus to the
station is planned in early 2013.

NASA initiatives like COTS and the agency's Commercial Crew Program
are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation
industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective
transportation to and from the space station and low Earth orbit. In
addition to cargo flights, NASA's commercial space partners are
making progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the
next 5 years.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop and advance
these commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is
developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a
crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new
capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for
launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will
expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions
of exploration in the solar system.

To follow the SpaceX CRS-1mission and for more information about the
International Space Station and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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