SpaceX is preparing for the third commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. During the SpaceX-3 mission, the Dragon capsule will deliver 4,969 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory and return 3,578 pounds to Earth.
The Advanced Plant Experiment, or APEX, experiment as it is being prepared by John Carver, a project manager with Jacobs Technology. After preparations are complete in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the experiment will be loaded aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for launch to the International Space Station.
Terry Tullis, a QinetiQ North America mechanical engineer, prepares the Biological Research In Canisters, or BRIC, 18-1 and 18-2 experiments which will be launched to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The work is taking place in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, QinetiQ North America Project Manager Carole Miller, left, works with Allison Caron, a QinetiQ mechanical engineer in preparing the Biotube experiment which will be launched to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, experiment has been unpacked in a test cell at a Space Station Processing Facility offline laboratory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The experiment is slated to fly aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission to the space station. The mission is expected to run 90 days after installation on the outside of the station.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians uncover and check the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, experiment in a test cell at a Space Station Processing Facility offline laboratory. The optical technology demonstration experiment arrived from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA will use the International Space Station to test OPALS’ technology, which could dramatically improve spacecraft communications, enhance commercial missions and strengthen transmission of scientific data.
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