SpaceX has successfully launched its Crew Resupply Mission 28 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after some delays over the weekend. The initial launch was postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions, particularly high winds in the booster recovery zone. The mission was successfully executed at 11:47 a.m. EDT Monday, with weather conditions deemed 60% favorable for liftoff. The accomplished mission’s objective is to restock the International Space Station with necessary supplies, equipment, and hardware for the upcoming months. Astronauts on the station will utilize these resources for their ongoing work. Furthermore, the mission transported new solar panels to enhance the station’s power system. It also carried a selection of private industry science experiments from numerous international contributors. One of the payloads was a European Space Agency science project called Thor, designed to study thunderstorms in Earth’s atmosphere. Thor will be tasked with measuring the frequency and altitude of blue discharges produced by internal phenomena and structures within thunderstorms. Due to the delayed launch of Northrup Grumman’s N-19 spaceship, NASA had to transfer some of the mission payload from the Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply vehicle to SpaceX. As a result, the Crew Resupply Mission 28 had a more significant role to play. “[SpaceX’s CRS-28 mission is] addressing the delays we had with our NG Cygnus vehicle reaching [International Space] station,” said NASA’s ISS chief scientist Kirt Costello. “Therefore, we’re dispatching plenty of additional logistics and crew supplies to maintain the station’s operations through the end of the year.”
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