The Dragon capsule will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, to the space station. 

The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida, according to the space agency.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will deliver new science investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the international crew, including NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment), which studies atmospheric gravity waves to understand the flow of energy through Earth’s upper atmosphere and space.

The spacecraft also will deliver NASA’s ILLUMA-T (Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), which aims to test high data rate laser communications from the space station to Earth via the agency’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration).

Together, ILLUMA-T and LCRD will complete NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser communications relay system, NASA said in a statement. IANS/KB