NASA's SpaceX 34th Commercial Resupply Services Prelaunch Teleconference
NASA Video
0:18 Heat.
0:18 Heat.
0:40 Oh, doo.
1:08 Heat.
1:08 Heat.
2:06 Heat.
2:07 Heat.
2:08 N.
2:56 Heat.
2:57 Heat.
2:58 N.
3:34 Oh my god.
3:58 Hey, hey, hey.
5:11 Welcome and thank you for standing by.
5:13 At this time, all participants are in a listenonly
5:16 mode until the question and answer session of today's conference.
5:19 At that time, you may press star one on your phone to join the queue.
5:23 I would all like to inform you that today's conference is being recorded.
5:28 If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.
5:31 I would now like to turn the conference over to Mick and Cruz.
5:33 Thank you.
5:33 You may begin.
5:36 Thank you so much.
5:37 Good morning everyone.
5:37 Thank you for joining us for this pre-launch teleconference
5:40 ahead of NASA's 34th commercial resupply services mission with SpaceX.
5:44 This will be a Falcon 9 launch from launch complex
5:47 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station here in Florida.
5:50 And right now teams are currently targeting tomorrow, May 12th, at 7:16 p.m.
5:55 Eastern time for liftoff.
5:57 uh with the Dragon then uh docking
5:59 to the International Space Station with science,
6:01 supplies, and equipment around 9:50 a.m.
6:04 Thursday morning.
6:05 So to talk more about this public private
6:07 partnership and its continued success in facilitating microgravity research,
6:11 we have several program leaders on the call.
6:13 Today we have Bill Fetch, operations and integration manager
6:17 of NASA's International Space Station program.
6:21 Dr.
6:21 Liz Warren, deputy chief scientist also
6:24 of NASA's International Space Station program.
6:27 Lee Eard, senior mission manager of government
6:30 and commercial mission management at SpaceX, as well as Brian Suzik,
6:34 launch weather officer with the Cape
6:35 Canaveral Space Force Station's 45th weather squadron.
6:40 All right, so we're going to start off with some opening remarks
6:42 from each of those there and then we'll start to take questions.
6:45 So, Bill, go ahead.
6:48 All right.
6:49 Thank you, Megan.
6:50 And and thank you to everyone for joining us uh this morning
6:53 to discuss our next cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station,
6:57 uh NASA's SpaceX CRS 34 mission.
7:00 We really appreciate everyone's continued interest in our mission.
7:04 On this flight, uh this will be the first cargo
7:07 Dragon spacecraft to head to the station for a sixth time.
7:10 So, a great milestone there.
7:11 Uh we're sending over 6,000 lbs of hardware, supplies, science experiments,
7:15 and more to our expedition 74 crew aboard the orbiting laboratory.
7:20 Those seven crew members currently on board
7:22 uh are our station commander Sergey Kudvkov.
7:26 We have Chris Williams, Sergey McKay, Jessica Mir,
7:31 Jack Hathaway, Sophie Ado, and Andre Fedv.
7:36 This mission includes everything from water purification hardware
7:40 to research that helps us better understand space weather.
7:43 And I know Dr.
7:43 Warren will share more in detail as we get to it.
7:47 Uh, as Megan mentioned, launch is scheduled for no earlier than 7:16 p.m.
7:52 Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, May 12th.
7:55 And the Dragon spacecraft is slated to arrive around 9:50 a.m.
7:58 on Thursday, May 14th to the forward port of the space station's Harmony module.
8:04 Dragon will stay docked for about a month before undocking and splashing
8:07 down with hardware and experiments for researchers on Earth to analyze.
8:14 Of course, we were all excited to see Artemis
8:15 2 launch circle the moon and return safely home.
8:18 But what made that moment even more meaningful was knowing it stood
8:20 on the shoulders of decades of work aboard the International Space Station.
8:26 The crew aboard the space station was able to speak
8:28 directly with the Artemis 2 astronauts in real time,
8:30 which is a powerful reminder that the continuous research, operations,
8:34 and problem solving we've mastered in lower Earth
8:36 orbit are exactly what make deep space missions possible.
8:39 The station has been providing ground has been
8:41 our proving ground for long duration human space flight,
8:44 life support systems, international partnerships,
8:46 and day-to-day discipline required to live and work off the planet.
8:50 Artemis 2 didn't happen in isolation.
8:52 And it happened because the International Space Station taught us how to sustain
8:55 humanity in space and paved the way for the next era of exploration.
9:00 Beyond this launch, we've had a busy season
9:03 in space as always uh with more to come.
9:06 On April 11th, we had the launch of Northrup Grumman's 24th commercial
9:09 resupply mission to the space station and that arrived on April 13th.
9:14 The Progress 95 spacecraft launched and launched back
9:17 on April 25th and docked on April 27th.
9:20 So, we've had a lot of cargo traffic coming
9:22 uh to the station as we've gone through this spring.
9:26 Coming up uh on July 14th, we have the Soyuse MS29 mission which
9:30 will launch NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos
9:33 cosminauts Pod Dubro and Anna Kika
9:37 on a long duration mission aboard the station.
9:40 Uh the next will be the return of the soy use MS28 uh with that NASA astronaut
9:46 Chris Williams and Ros cos most cosmod Sergey
9:49 Kudworchov and Sergey McKay that'll occur on July 26th.
9:55 Uh we'll keep up the traffic going in early
9:58 September with another progress launch progress number 96.
10:02 And then in mid se September we announced through our uh space
10:06 station blog that NASA's crew 13 mission is moving forward from November.
10:10 NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney
10:14 will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot respectively.
10:16 They will be joined by CSA astronaut
10:18 Josh Kutri and Roscosmos cosminaut Sergey Tetern Teternov.
10:26 I apologize to Sergey for butchering his name.
10:28 Um, who will serve as mission
10:30 specialists after arriving at the orbiting laboratory.
10:33 Crew 13 will become members of the space station's expedition 75.
10:38 In the fall, we'll have our next uh Dragon resupply mission, SpaceX CRS35,
10:45 uh which is targeted to launch more than 7200 pounds of cargo and payloads,
10:49 including the next set of international space station rollout solar
10:52 arrays or IROAs that'll launch from space launch complex 40.
10:58 Later on in the year, uh,
11:00 getting more into the the the late fall and winter time frame,
11:03 NASA's North of Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 25 mission is targeted
11:07 to launch approximately 11,000 lbs of cargo uh to the space station.
11:14 We're also working towards uh a number
11:16 of upcoming spacew walks here uh over the summer.
11:20 Uh the first one coming up uh May 27th
11:23 uh our Roscosmos colleagues will conduct their EVA number 66.
11:28 Uh then in late June,
11:29 we will look to uh continue our work on our solar array mod kits
11:33 with US EVA 95 followed in early and mid August by another pair of EVAs uh
11:39 on our side uh to do the uh what we plan as we called the triple
11:44 jump EVA as well as doing an antenna replacement on USVA 97 in mid August.
11:52 So we continue to stay busy on station.
11:54 Um, we really appreciate again for you uh taking the time
11:58 to join us today and your interest in our mission.
12:00 And I will hand it over to uh Dr.
12:02 Warren to talk about the great science that we have coming up on this mission.
12:07 Uh thank you very much, Bill.
12:08 Uh and good morning everyone.
12:10 Thanks again for joining the telecon today.
12:12 I'm uh really excited to tell you about just a few
12:16 of the fantastic new science investigations we're launching on SpaceX 34.
12:21 Uh, I'll remind you of some of our great highlight statistics.
12:24 You know, the ISS has enabled more than 4,000 different science uh,
12:29 experiments and technology demonstrations in its 25 years on orbit.
12:34 That represents the work of over 5,000
12:37 researchers from 110 countries around the world.
12:41 The International Space Station is a truly global endeavor.
12:44 It serves uh both as a proving ground for scientific breakthroughs
12:48 and as a critical stepping stone to help enable the Aremis program,
12:53 lunar exploration and future Mars missions.
12:57 So SpaceX 34 Dragon spacecraft will be carrying hardware and samples
13:01 and supplies to support over
13:03 550 different scientific investigations across NASA,
13:08 the ISS National Laboratory, and our international partners.
13:13 I'm going to highlight just a few of those today.
13:16 Uh first up is Odyssey sponsored
13:19 by NASA's biological and physical sciences division.
13:23 Odyssey evaluates biofilm formation and the exchange
13:26 of genetic material between two species of bacteria.
13:31 So in general, microbes exchange genetic material
13:34 in a process known as horizontal gene
13:38 transfer that allows uh allows them
13:41 to rapidly adapt and gain new survival traits.
13:45 Part of this research aims to understand
13:47 how microgravity and space radiation impact microbial evolution.
13:53 So why is this important?
13:54 Well, studies on this topic could aid
13:57 in the success of future space exploration missions
14:00 and back on Earth inform new and innovative
14:04 approaches for curbing the spread of infections in hospitals.
14:09 Next up is NASA's story from NASA's space mission directorate.
14:15 story seeks to understand the origin and composition of Earth's
14:20 ring current which is similar to Earth's Van Allen belts.
14:25 Basically energized particles that form a ring-shaped electrical current around
14:30 the Earth and this ring current changes during geomagnetic storms.
14:35 Particles in Earth's ring current are susceptible to space weather and that can
14:41 produce impacts on human assets such as our power grids and satellites.
14:48 Those those particles are the same ones that can
14:50 heat up in our in our upper atmosphere,
14:53 increasing satellite drag and increasing the risk of uh satellite loss.
14:59 The story is going to be mounted
15:01 on the exterior of the space station on the STP.
15:04 That's space test program H11 which is
15:07 a partnership between the US space force and NASA.
15:12 The next investigation is LLAS from ISSa in the German Aerospace Center.
15:20 The LLAS investigation studies the growth
15:23 and movement of dust clouds in microgravity
15:26 in order to learn more about how planets and solar systems form.
15:31 The investigation is named after Pierre Simone Llas who suggested over
15:37 200 years ago that planets form in a disc around stars.
15:43 This claim could not be confirmed until the invention of large
15:46 telescopes and Hubble first captured a protolanetary disc in 1992.
15:53 So how's this going to work on ISS?
15:55 Well, we're going to ind inject tiny dust particles into a thin gas
16:00 to create a mixture like what is seen in those pro protolanetary discs.
16:05 Those are pancake- like discs of mostly gas and dust that surround a young star.
16:10 And we're going to take a lot of pictures
16:12 and study those uh those uh those dust clouds.
16:17 The next investigation is human research kind of.
16:21 It's called Green Bone and it's from ESA and the Italian Space Agency.
16:26 Green Bone investigates the performance of a biomimetic scaffold made from wood,
16:33 rattan to be specific, that is designed to mimic human bone
16:38 structure and support regeneration aboard the space station.
16:42 So researchers are going to grow human
16:45 bone cells on that wood scaffold in microgravity
16:49 and also in simulated gravity aboard the space
16:52 station to study how those cells behave.
16:55 The bone scaffold is intended to act like real bone and may be useful
17:00 in the future for healing large bone
17:03 defects in patients with weak bones or osteoporosis.
17:09 One of the investigations sponsored by the ISS
17:12 National Laboratory is called Sachi Bio.
17:15 This project uses both brain and motor
17:19 neuron organoids on the International Space Station
17:22 to study spaceflight induced neurodeeneration and will test
17:27 some therapeutics for diseases like ALS and Alzheimer's.
17:32 The last investigation I will highlight is spark from the Canadian space agency.
17:38 This one is a a true human space flight or human investigation.
17:43 So since the very early days of human space flight,
17:46 it has been common for astronauts to return with fewer
17:49 red blood cells and that can lead to anemia.
17:53 Anemia is a condition where your body lacks enough healthy
17:56 red blood cells to carry sufficient oxygen to your body's tissues.
18:01 As humanity prepares for space missions to the moon and eventually Mars,
18:06 understanding what causes space anemia and how
18:09 to alleviate the symptoms is increasingly important.
18:13 So that is just a taste of some of the science we're sending up on SpaceX 34.
18:18 We're very excited to get started and now I'm going to hand it over to Lee.
18:25 Thank you Dr.
18:26 Warren.
18:26 Uh good morning everyone.
18:28 I'm excited to discuss that as OES tomorrow,
18:30 SpaceX and NASA teams will be launching
18:32 CRS 34 to the International Space Station.
18:36 So far, everything is looking good for launch.
18:39 The two external payloads were mated in the trunk
18:41 and then stacked in the with the capsule
18:43 in April and most of the cargo has been loaded in the capsule.
18:47 Dragon arrived at the hanger at pad 40 this past weekend,
18:50 was made it to Falcon 9, and we rolled out to the pad last night and I'm
18:54 happy to report that we are now vertical on the pad.
18:58 34 is our second Dragon launch of the year following crew 12 in February
19:03 and we're looking forward to launching crew 13 and CS35 in the fall.
19:10 As Bill mentioned, uh the Dragon capsule supporting this mission is making
19:13 its sixth flight uh which is a first for our cargo program.
19:18 Our teams completed qualification extension campaigns
19:21 as well as life leader inspections
19:23 on this capsule to verify overall flight readiness and achieve this milestone.
19:28 We're always reviewing data from every mission and able to learn
19:31 from our hardware and unlock capabilities such as this sixflight reuse.
19:37 Uh this dragon will be carrying nearly 6,500 lb of cargo
19:41 to the space station including food supplies and science experiments and more.
19:46 It will spend approximately one month uh docked to the space station
19:49 ahead of returning and splashing down off the coast of California in June.
19:54 The Falcon first stage supporting this mission is also on its
19:57 sixth flight having previously supported
19:59 government commercial and Starlink missions.
20:02 And then about 8 minutes after launch,
20:05 the first stage booster will return to Earth
20:07 and land at our new landing zone 40.
20:11 Uh later today we'll complete our final launch readiness review as well as final
20:16 late load cargo preparations to launch Falcon 9 and drag into the space station.
20:22 The cargo resupply missions enable critical
20:24 research that helps people back on Earth
20:26 as well as better understand what we need to do to make life multilanetary.
20:31 We're honored to continue to help support all of the critical
20:34 work aboard the station and are looking forward to launch.
20:38 Thank you and I'll hand it over to Brian Sisit.
20:42 Okay, thank you very much, Lee.
20:44 And um unfortunately,
20:45 the trend really has not been our friend for the forecast for tomorrow
20:49 evening compared to what we've been looking at for the last few days.
20:53 Some of today's model runs have trended significantly uh less favorable compared
20:58 to what we've been looking at a few days ago and even just yesterday.
21:02 We're in a very active weather pattern here in east
21:04 central Florida as you might have noticed over the last
21:07 few days where we've had strong to even severe thunderstorms
21:10 moving across the state and today will be no exception.
21:13 We have very deep moisture in place,
21:15 a front stalled just to the north and some upper level support as well.
21:20 So all those factors have come together to produce
21:23 a pretty active weather pattern uh for miday
21:26 as we transition from our drier winter season
21:29 into our wet thunderstorm season in the summertime.
21:33 So as we go into tonight and into tomorrow,
21:36 that front that's stalled to the north will uh
21:39 kind of get reinforced by another cold front pushing
21:41 in from the north and that front will slowly
21:43 move from north to south across the state tomorrow.
21:47 Uh the big difference in the forecast that we've
21:49 we've seen today compared to the last few
21:51 days is the models are really slowing down
21:54 the progression of that front moving from north to south.
21:57 So that will help pull more moisture over east central Florida uh for tomorrow
22:02 which will lead to higher shower and storm
22:04 coverage tomorrow afternoon into the evening hours.
22:08 So that will lead to a 65% probability of violation or a 35% chance of go.
22:15 There are several lightning launch commit
22:18 criteria rules that we're concerned about, particularly the cumulus cloud rule,
22:22 anvil cloud rules, and surface electric fields rule
22:25 as well as the dragon flight through precipitation constraint.
22:29 So all of those will be on the table tomorrow.
22:32 Um just given the amount of moisture and some of the uh some of the factors
22:37 in play for tomorrow and the expected
22:39 shower and thunderstorm coverage tomorrow afternoon and evening.
22:43 Uh the good news is we do see a slight drying
22:46 trend as we get into the middle and later into the week.
22:48 So for the backup attempts,
22:50 we we have a 35% probability of violation or a 65% chance of go.
22:56 Still some lingering moisture in place.
22:58 So I still expect at least some isolated showers
23:01 and storms in the area uh for the evening on Wednesday.
23:04 And then we do have a reinforcing shot of drier air if
23:07 we're we were to push for our second backup day on Thursday evening.
23:12 So again, tomorrow the trend the forecast has trended less favorable.
23:16 We have just a 35% chance of go, but the launch weather team is ready to support
23:21 and if we can find a gap in the weather,
23:23 we will find it for uh for tomorrow evening's attempt.
23:27 So that's all I have and I will throw it back to Megan.
23:31 Hey, thank you everyone.
23:32 Um great opening remarks.
23:34 Obviously impressive milestones and and science that will be enabled through
23:37 this mission and we'll of course keep an eye on the weather.
23:40 Uh so let's start taking some questions.
23:41 Uh for those on the line, remember to press star one to get into the question
23:45 queue and then star two to get out.
23:48 We will start first with Will Robinson Smith, Spaceflight Now.
23:53 Hey Megan, thanks for the opportunity
23:55 and thanks to everyone for your time today.
23:57 U quick question to Lee.
24:00 Um, you obviously mentioned that this is the first time
24:03 that a cargo dragon is flying for a sixth time,
24:06 but this will be uh the second time that a Dragon overall,
24:10 a Dragon 2 is flying for a sixth
24:11 time with Endeavor already reaching that milestone.
24:14 So, what were the main differences between certifying a cargo Dragon
24:19 for a sixth flight versus uh one that was carrying crew?
24:23 And then just a quick question to Bill Spechch, if I may.
24:26 Uh there was a a press release from NASA
24:29 that came out about a week ago that said
24:30 that the agency was still uh deciding where
24:34 the Starlininer 1 mission may fit on the manifest.
24:37 Um about how far out do you need to make that determination as far
24:41 as station scheduling uh to see if it can still fly at some point this year?
24:46 Thanks.
24:50 Hey, this uh I'll take the first question.
24:52 Uh and thank you uh good memory.
24:54 Uh with crew 11 being our first six flight uh crew capsule with Endeavor.
24:59 Uh we completed a similar uh life extension qualification
25:02 uh for the crew vehicles um u reviewing all hardware
25:07 components across the vehicle and ensuring we had at least
25:09 six flights uh qualification rationale uh for the crew capsule.
25:14 And then for the cargo uh qualification for this flight,
25:17 it was essentially a Delta certification with looking
25:20 at the hardware items that are unique
25:23 to the cargo configuration and completing a similar uh
25:26 at least 6x um qualification for for this mission.
25:34 Yeah.
25:34 And to your second question, um obviously there's a process that we go through.
25:39 We continue to maintain uh as close to launch readiness as possible
25:42 on Starlininer 1 for all of our other factors that play into it.
25:47 Um we're continuing on to investigate the issues
25:50 that that we saw and so we're working very
25:52 close with our Boeing colleagues on that and we
25:54 will end up flying it when it's ready.
25:57 Um some of that will determine exactly how much
25:59 notice we have in front of uh the launch.
26:02 As you know, our our schedule's pretty busy.
26:04 Um, but we're trying to maintain windows where
26:07 we can go where we can go fly that.
26:12 Thank you so much for that first question.
26:14 We will now go to Jeff S, Space News.
26:18 Good morning and thanks again for uh
26:20 resuming these pre-launch briefings for cargo missions.
26:23 Question for Bill.
26:24 You'd mentioned that, you know,
26:26 the next crew mission's been moved up to September.
26:28 There had been some questions about whether NASA was going
26:30 to go to an eight-month cadence for crew missions versus six.
26:34 Sounds like for now you're sticking to six.
26:35 Is that the plan going forward?
26:37 Is there a possibility given uncertainties in the budget um
26:41 that you may go to eightmonth uh cadence of missions?
26:44 Thanks.
26:47 Yeah, as administrator Eisman has talked about,
26:49 we're trying to uh get the most out of station as we can
26:52 and so we were able to move up the uh that next mission.
26:56 Um we plan to stay on about that six-month cadence um as we go forward.
27:01 Right now, obviously it'll vary a little bit.
27:03 you know, our our flight schedule is is uh quite
27:06 busy and so we'll see we may see that time.
27:09 It may not be exactly six months in between each mission.
27:12 Um but uh we'll be back to kind of our normal
27:16 cadence at that point and we'll see where things fit.
27:19 So you may see things move around a little bit.
27:21 We may see uh we may see seven months, we may see six months,
27:25 but it it'll be determined based on uh our overall flight schedule
27:29 at that and all the other vehicles that we need to fit in.
27:34 All right, next question is from Marcia Smith at Space Policy Online.
27:39 Thanks so much for taking my question and it's to Bill Fetch.
27:42 Could you give an update on Japan's HTVX?
27:46 I had thought that they were going to have a launch this year, but I gather not.
27:50 When is the next HTV and HTVX,
27:53 and how many more do you anticipate through the life of the space station?
28:01 Yeah, I know.
28:02 Uh we have been planning on uh our next HTVX mission.
28:06 We're looking for the location.
28:07 I'm going to defer to and ask you to reach out
28:09 to JAXA specifically for any details on on their mission schedule.
28:13 Um that's really driven by by their own internal uh planning for launches.
28:23 All right, next one is Paul Brinkman, Aerospace America.
28:28 Hi.
28:29 Uh yeah, I'm I'm wondering if uh Dr.
28:32 Warren could just talk a little bit about and apologies if uh you know,
28:37 you've already addressed questions like this uh in the recent past,
28:41 but you know, we're looking at the final four years of the space station,
28:46 um maybe five years.
28:49 Um, what kind of change do you anticipate
28:53 or are you already seeing some change in like
28:57 the type of experiments that may be may are
29:02 maybe being registered at this point that go up
29:06 uh possibly ongoing research where they need a final
29:09 capstone experiment and they want to make sure
29:12 that they get that in because I'm sure
29:14 the planning process for these is is years in advance.
29:17 Are you seeing any change in that or how how is that being addressed?
29:27 Hey, thanks for that question.
29:29 You know, a lot of the research that we do on the space
29:32 station is is really critical for exploration and that has not changed.
29:38 Um we're just being we're just kind of honing
29:41 the the knife edge if you will on trying to determine
29:45 uh you know real solutions and de and basically demonstrate
29:49 the technologies we need to go and do further exploration.
29:53 The other side of that of that knife edge
29:55 is uh demonstrating and advancing science uh that fosters
30:00 a robust LEO economy and a lot
30:04 of the research that is happening on space station now.
30:07 I mentioned one of those investigations Sachi bio we have another
30:11 one uh escrow biotech launching on this on this uh SpaceX mission.
30:17 We expect and I believe
30:18 that that the research community there they fully anticipate
30:22 transitioning to commercial commercial uh platforms to continue
30:26 their research in in low earth orbit.
30:29 Um some of that is to uh you know benefit
30:32 life in on Earth and that research is going to continue.
30:36 So I'm not seeing a shift really.
30:38 I'm just seeing a little bit of of maybe a little finer resolution and focus.
30:44 Thanks.
30:46 Thank you Liz.
30:46 Thanks for that question.
30:48 Um, next one.
30:49 Actually, before I go to that, uh, next caller, uh,
30:52 just a reminder, we see a couple of you guys on the call.
30:55 If you want to get onto the question queue,
30:57 press star one and then start two to get out.
30:59 We do have some time to take, uh, follow-up questions if you'd like.
31:03 Okay, go ahead, Ken Kramer.
31:05 Space up close.
31:07 Hey, thank you for doing this and uh,
31:09 hopefully the weather will get a little better.
31:11 Um, my question for Liz Warren, please.
31:14 Um, there was some science experiments on Artemis 2, Avatar,
31:19 and testing the physical and mental acuity
31:22 of the astronauts when they came back.
31:24 I'm wondering, um, is there anything like this being done on the ISS?
31:29 Thanks.
31:32 Hey, Dr.
31:32 Kramer.
31:33 Um, absolutely.
31:34 In fact, a lot of the research that was done on Artemis, uh,
31:38 is super closely tied to research that we're doing on the space station.
31:42 In fact, you know, most of the human research you mentioned like the uh
31:46 cognitive acuity of the astronauts is the exact
31:50 same research we're doing on space station,
31:52 maybe with some slight modifications,
31:54 but the intent there is to look across platforms and look
31:57 across spacecraft and really expand our understanding of human space flight.
32:03 Um, you also mentioned Avatar.
32:06 So tissue chips uh we started flying those on the International Space Station
32:11 several years ago really kind of refined and validated that they work in space
32:16 and that helped to enable uh the Avatar mission on Artemis 2 and hopefully
32:21 we'll continue to see tissue chip
32:23 investigations fly on the International Space Station.
32:26 Of course uh one of the intended benefits
32:30 uh of course there's an earth benefit uh
32:33 for example disease uh modeling and therapeutic testing uh
32:38 so that we could advance human health on earth.
32:41 There's another great side to that which is uh precision medicine and prec
32:46 precision counter measures that could be
32:48 developed for astronauts uh on exploration missions.
32:52 Uh so I hope that answers your question.
32:56 Great.
32:56 And we have Will Robinson Smith on the line again.
32:59 Space flight now.
33:01 Hey, thanks.
33:02 Me a followup.
33:03 Uh question I suppose to Bill Spatch.
33:06 Um there's been some discussion about uh where
33:10 flying uh the AX EMU suit could fit,
33:13 whether it would fly in the Aremis 3 mission
33:16 in Earth orbit or potentially go aboard space station.
33:20 for the station side of that equation.
33:23 Uh would it potentially be flying as part of the Axiom private
33:27 astronaut mission or as cargo up on a a future CRS Dragon flight?
33:33 I just curious for some color on on if
33:36 that's been defined at this point in time.
33:38 Thanks.
33:41 Yeah.
33:41 Um obviously if we're doing a demonstr with a demonstration for Artemis
33:44 that'll that'll fly up through our normal cargo resupply missions um to ISS.
33:50 Uh and so uh as we continue to work through how we go demonstrate things
33:56 uh that would be it would either be a Dragon or it could be a Signis.
33:59 Um uh Signis may actually be a better bet
34:02 for it just because of the larger cargo capacity.
34:05 Uh obviously Dragon would would probably bring it home.
34:09 Um but we'll have to work through that.
34:10 We haven't worked through all the details uh at this point in time,
34:13 but I would anticipate that would be on a a normal CRS resupply
34:16 missions and then we'll share more later as as that as that evolves.
34:25 Thanks so much, Bill, and thanks for that second question, Will.
34:27 Um again, we invited anyone else to join and it
34:30 doesn't seem like anyone else is in the question queue,
34:32 so we can wrap up this pre-launch teleconference.
34:35 Again, thank you to everyone for your interest
34:37 in NASA's 34th commercial resupply services mission with SpaceX.
34:41 We will of course have live coverage throughout the mission.
34:44 Uh for launch, you can start tuning in tomorrow at 700 p.m.
34:48 on NASA plus NASA's YouTube channel as well as Amazon Prime.
34:52 Again, liftoff is currently targeted for 7:12 p.m.
34:56 And then our coverage to show Dragon arriving
34:58 at the International Space Station will start at 8:20 a.m.
35:02 Eastern time uh on those same streaming
35:04 platforms with docking docking targeted at 9:50 a.m.
35:08 Eastern time.
35:09 So, we hope you can join us all for that.
35:10 Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
35:15 That concludes today's conference.
35:16 You may disconnect at this time.