An uncrewed SpaceX Cargo Dragon will blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week, carrying scientific equipment and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). This will be the 27th SpaceX mission to resupply the space station, and it will use a Falcon 9 rocket to be launched from Launch Complex 39A.
The launch will be livestreamed by NASA, so if you want to watch, we have the details you need below.
What to expect from the launch
On Tuesday, March 14 (barring delays), a Cargo Dragon will launch to the ISS, where it will dock with the station’s Harmony module. It will remain there for around one month, before being filled with the results of science experiments done on the station, plus other return cargo. It will then return to Earth uncrewed, splashing down off the Florida coast.
On the outbound journey, the Dragon will be full of research projects, including a student-led project to create a camera clamp for filming in space, plus a Japanese experiment to study how resistant microscopic life is to the space environment. There will also be research into human health like tissue chips, which are used to simulate human organs.
How to watch the launch
The launch of the Cargo Dragon will be livestreamed on NASA’s channel, NASA TV, which is available to view for free online. To watch it, you can either use the video embedded near the top of this page, or you can head to the NASA TV YouTube page, which shows a livestream of the channel.
Coverage of the launch begins at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on Tuesday, March 14, with the launch itself scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT). The spacecraft will then travel overnight and throughout Wednesday before arriving at the space station on Thursday morning.
To watch the spacecraft docking with the ISS, you can tune into coverage on NASA TV using the same video linked above, with coverage beginning at 5:30 a.m. ET (2:30 a.m. PT) on Thursday, March 16. Docking is scheduled for 7:07 a.m. ET (4:07 a.m. PT).
