NASA Targets Early April for Eighth SpaceX Cargo Launch

Media accreditation now is open for the April dispatch of a load resupply benefit mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX's Dragon payload rocket is focused for dispatch at 4:43 p.m. EDT Friday, April 8. The Dragon container will dispatch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida, conveying science research, group supplies and equipment to the circling lab in backing of the Expedition 47 and 48 teams. The flight additionally incorporates the Bigelow Aerospace expandable territory module that will be appended to the space station for testing. In its planned come back to Earth in May, the Dragon container will bring back natural specimens from space explorers, including those gathered amid NASA's one-year mission. This dispatch is the eighth contracted mission by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.Media prelaunch and dispatch exercises will happen at CCAFS and at close-by NASA Kennedy Space Center. The due date to apply for media access to Kennedy is 5 p.m., March 24 for non-nationals and 5 p.m. Walk 31 for U.S. subjects. The enrollment due date for universal media access to the Air Force station has gone for this occasion./nasa.gov orginal post/