NASA announced SpaceX’s 23rd Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-23) mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Saturday, August 28. A Falcon 9 rocket will liftoff into Florida’s sky at 3:37 a.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A carrying Dragon to orbit [date is subject to change]. It will be the third flight of the upgraded Dragon spacecraft under NASA's CRS Phase 2 contract. The CRS-23 mission is expected to transport over 5,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS laboratory.

“The spacecraft will deliver a variety of NASA science investigations, including a study on preventing and treating bone density loss, an investigation that will test diagnostic devices that could detect and mitigate vision disorders, and a new robotic arm for demonstration that could reveal potential uses on Earth, including in disaster relief,” the agency wrote in a press release. “The capsule also will deliver materials including concrete, fiberglass composites, and substances that can offer protection against radiation to investigate how they respond to the harsh environment of space. Additionally, nanofluidic and educational experiments will use the new research facility aboard the orbiting laboratory.”

Dragon will also deliver a cool collection of science experiments for the Girl Scouts, which is a youth organization in the United States that encourages girls to become leaders by learning a variety of skills and they get rewarded with badges for acquiring practical skills and knowledge. In collaboration with NASA and ProXopS, the Girl Scouts “Making Space for Girls” program will send a study to examine plant growth in microgravity, an ant colonization research, as well as a study to learn about the brine shrimp lifecycle at the ISS Lab. The astronaut crew at the Space Station will send Girl Scout troops on Earth photos of their research.

These experiments will be launched in a special device designed to safely transport and host research to space, called ProXopS Faraday Research Facility. It will be the first time the device is launched to ISS. Besides carrying the research for Girl Scouts, the Faraday facility will also host a Houston Methodist Research Institute experiment that will test an implantable, minimally invasive, remote-controlled medicine delivery system in microgravity. “The ProXopS Faraday Research Facility, developed in partnership with L2 Solutions Inc., is designed to operate remotely and provide a controlled environment for power, command and control, telemetry responses, and safety assurance for microgravity experiments. An added benefit with the facility is that experiments return to the ground for evaluation,” said Chad Brinkley, president of ProXopS LLC and L2 Solution Inc., in a press release. These are only a few out of dozens of science research that will be launched aboard the Dragon capsule. Learn more about more science research and cargo SpaceX’s Dragon CRS-23 will transport to the Space Station in the video below, courtesy of NASA.

Featured Image Source: NASA