SpaceX targets August 13 for next resupply mission to ISS

(Representational image)

Washington: SpaceX is targeting August 13 for the launch of its 12th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will boost a Dragon spacecraft filled with almost 2,721.5 kg of supplies from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said.

The payloads include crucial materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 52 and 53.

About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and deploy its solar arrays. 

A carefully choreographed series of thruster firings are scheduled to allow the spacecraft to rendezvous with the space station. 

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli will grapple Dragon using the space station's robotic arm and install it on the station's Harmony module.

The station crew will unpack the Dragon and begin working with the experiments that include plant pillows containing seeds for NASA's Veggie plant growth system experiment. 

Veggie, like most of the research taking place on the space station, is demonstrating how the research benefits life on Earth as it advances NASA's plans to send humans to Mars.

NASA said the Dragon spacecraft will spend approximately one month attached to the space station. 

It will remain until mid-September when the spacecraft will return to Earth with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.