Sunday, Nov. 6, will be a busy day for Virginia’s Wallops Flight Facility as Northrop Grumman’s 18th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is set to lift off from its launchpad.
The Antares rocket launch is scheduled for 5:50 a.m., from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A on Wallops Island, and will be delivering supplies, equipment and new items for ongoing space research to the ISS.
The microgravity laboratory will be taking on:
- a facility and study that attempt to advance 3D biological printing of human tissue in space,
- a study taking advantage of microgravity to better understand catastrophic mudflows that can occur after wildfires,
- Uganda and Zimbabwe’s first satellites developed as a part of the BIRDS program, an interdisciplinary project for non-space faring countries,
- an investigation into how microgravity influences ovary function,
- and an experiment that studies if changes space-grown plants undergo to adapt to microgravity can be transmitted through seeds to the next generation.
Research conducted on the station is part of an international effort by Canadian, European, American, Russian, Japanese and Italian partnering agencies. It is also an opportunity for students on Earth to follow and take part in research through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics programs at their local schools.
The STEM component to the research shows classrooms across the world, through video posting, about lab safety, engineering and design, functionality of simple machines, centripetal force, physics, and Earth observation.
Where to watch?
Viewing locations on Chincoteague Island include Robert Reed Park on Main Street or Beach Road spanning the area between Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. The Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Atlantic beaches also provide good viewing locations.
The gates of the NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will be open for this launch at 3:30 a.m,, with live coverage of the mission countdown scheduled to begin at approximately 1:50 a.m. on the Wallops IBM video site.
Launch coverage and mission commentary will air live on NASA TV at 5:30 a.m.
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