NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 9, to discuss the hardware, technology demonstrations, and science experiments headed to the International Space Station aboard SpaceXs 26th commercial resupply mission for the agency.
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live online at:
SpaceX is targeting Friday, Nov. 18, to launch its Dragon cargo spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
One of the payloads aboard the cargo flight is the Moon Microscope kit for in-flight medical diagnosis that includes a portable handheld microscope and a small self-contained blood sample staining device. This will allow astronauts to collect and stain a blood sample, obtain images with the microscope, and transmit images to the ground, where flight surgeons will use them to diagnose illnesses and prescribe treatments.
SpaceXs Dragon also will deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including the next set of International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs). It also will carry a study which will grow dwarf tomatoes as part of efforts to create a continuous fresh-food production system in space, and an experiment that tests an on-demand method to create specific quantities of key nutrients.
Teleconference participants include:
- Kirt Costello, NASAs chief scientist for the International Space Station Program Research Office, who will provide an overview of the research and technology launching aboard the Dragon spacecrafts
- Gioia Massa, NASAs space crop production scientist and principal investigator for the Veg-05 study
- Matt Mickle, Boeings developmental projects senior manager, who will discuss International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays (iROSA)
- Timothy Macaulay, CIPHER vestibular health study lead, an experiment which will use the newly launching Falcon Goggles tool
- Mayra Nelman-Gonzalez, immunologist in NASAs Johnson Space Centers Immunology and Virology Laboratory and co-investigator for the Moon Microscope technology demonstration
- John A. Hogan, chief of the bioengineering branch at NASAs Ames Research Center and principal investigator for the BioNutrients-2 experiment
- A representative for the Extrusion study sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory
