SpaceX launched its 27th Commercial Resupply Service (CRS-27) mission for a 35-hour journey to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on Tuesday, March 14 at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT Wednesday) from Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The uncrewed Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket is packed with more than 6,000 pounds of fresh food, hardware, and experiments essential for keeping the orbiting lab's seven-person crew supplied during its operation.
About seven and a-half minutes after liftoff, the rocket's first-stage booster supporting the CRS-27 mission, B1073, completed its seventh flight, landing on an autonomous drone ship, "A Shortfall of Gravitas" (ASOG), in the Atlantic Ocean.
Dragon is scheduled to autonomously dock to the forward-facing port of the Harmony module about 7:52 a.m. EDT Thursday, March 16.
CRS-27, is the 16th Falcon 9 and 17th overall SpaceX mission of 2023, and the seventh flight for SpaceX under NASA's CRS Phase 2.
Today's mission recovery operation was a historic one for SpaceX and for spaceflight as a whole.
"In an industry that has historically been male-dominated, today's recovery operations are being managed by an all-female crew," SpaceX engineer Zachary Luppen said during the CRS-27 launch webcast. "In fact, we believe it to be the first all-female crew for any kind of operation like this, and if it's not the first, then we're in great company."
