Merritt Island, Fla. (WFLA) – SpaceX began human spaceflight Monday night, conducting research designed to improve human capabilities in space.
FRAM2’s FALCON 9 release liftoff is targeted at 9:46pm by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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The crew on missions over the past few days will explore the Earth from polar orbit and fly the polar for the first time. They are tasked with 22 research studies to understand the health of humans in the universe.
Mission Commander Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Janik Mikkelsen, Vehicle Pilot Laveer Lodge, and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Phillips plan to perform the first X-rays in space, maintaining muscle and skeletal mass and to perform exercises to grow mushrooms with microgravity.
SpaceX said that once crews land and leave the Dragon’s spacecraft, they will test their ability to perform unassisted functional tasks after time in space by doing so without medical and operational support.
The Dragon spaceship previously flew Crew 1, Inspiratioon 4, and Polaris Dawn. This is the sixth flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission. Following the separation of stages, the first stage lands on the Atlantic “gravitas shortage” droneship.
WFLA.com will live stream the Space Launch Monday night. This can be seen in the video player above.