Northrup-Grumman’s Antares rocket will be launched from Wallops Island on Sunday, February 9th at 5:39 pm. If the weather is clear, make a day of it and drive to the Eastern Shore to see this International Space Station Resupply mission. If you can’t make it to Wallops, because of the timing the sun will be setting within moments of launch. This could make for some spectacular views and aid in the visibility from areas north and south of Wallops. Use the chart to see when it will be visible to you.
On this ISS ressuply mission scientists are going to test how to control and understand the spread of fire, grow radishes, and a Mobile Space Lab to understand the growth of cells and tissue.
The Spacecraft Fire Experiment-IV (Saffire-IV) will be done inside the cygnus vehicle, the same capsule that will bring the Astronauts the supplies. This test will happen after the vehicle leaves the station. It will test to see how different materials burn in microgravity.
The Plant Habitat Mission 2 will follow from what scientists learned from the first mission back in
2018 and this time see how radishes grow in soil. This test will take 27 days and during that timespan, they will take photographs and samples throughout the test.
Hopefully we will have good weather for a launch of the NG-13 Mission to the ISS!
Jeff Edmondson