Space Systems Command and NASA are preparing to launch eight experimental payloads to the International Space Station for the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program.
STP-Houston 9 will launch into space as part of SpaceX’s 27th commercial resupply mission to ISS, which will host the eight experiments for one year, SSC said Thursday.
The payload will launch aboard SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft and liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 14.
Upon docking to the ISS, the STP-H9 payload will be robotically transferred to its external hosting site, the Japanese External Facility, where it will gather data to support the DOD experiments.
“This mission marks another milestone in the valuable partnership between SSC and DOD’s Space Test Program and NASA and continues the STP’s 58-year history of providing access to space for emerging DOD technologies,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Shea, SSC director of the DOD STP.
The space mission is developed in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.