This week will see a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and head for the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver supplies and research to the crew there. The launch is scheduled for this Thursday, November 9, after having been rescheduled from earlier in the week to allow time for additional prelaunch checks.
If you’d like to watch the launch and docking of the SpaceX Dragon, NASA will be live-streaming those two events via its NASA TV channel, and we have the details on how to watch below.
What to expect from the launch
This will be the 29th commercial resupply mission run by SpaceX, and it will use a Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon spacecraft to carry 6,500 pounds of cargo to the ISS. The cargo will include supplies for the crew, as well as new hardware for the station and a variety of scientific research experiments.
Some highlights include a NASA laser communications test called ILLUMA-T (Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), and an accompanying piece of hardware called LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration), which are part of NASA’s ongoing tests into the user of laser communications.
The uncrewed spacecraft will launch on Thursday and travel to the station over several days, arriving early in the morning of Saturday, November 11. It will dock with the station’s Harmony module and stay docked to the station for approximately one month. Then it will be filled with completed research experiments and travel back to Earth, again without crew, to splash down off the coast of Florida.
How to watch the launch
Coverage of the launch begins at 8 pm ET (5 pm PT) on Thursday, November 9, with launch of the spacecraft scheduled for 8:28 pm ET (5:28 pm PT). Coverage of the spacecraft docking with the ISS will begin at 3:45 am ET (12:45 am PT) on Saturday, November 11, with docking scheduled for 5:21 am ET (2:21 am PT).
You can watch using the video embedded above or by heading to NASA’s YouTube page for the event.
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