Due to unfavorable weather in the splashdown zones off the coast of Florida, NASA and SpaceX have revised their target time for the undocking of the company’s 29th Dragon commercial resupply services mission from the International Space Station to no earlier than 5:05 p.m. EST on Thursday, December 21, 2023.

Samples and gear for scientific study will be sent to NASA and its international partners when a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft leaves the International Space Station on Thursday, December 21.

Beginning at 4:45 p.m. EST, the agency will show live footage of Dragon’s undocking and departure via the NASA app or the NASA+ streaming service on the web. Live coverage will also be available on the agency’s website, YouTube, and NASA Television. Discover how to watch NASA TV on a range of devices, such as social media.

At 9:05 p.m., Dragon will undock with the Harmony module of the station and, at the signal of SpaceX ground controllers in Hawthorne, California, use its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station.

Off the coast of Florida, the spacecraft will splash down after reentering Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s space station blog will provide updates following the splashdown, but the agency will not broadcast the event live.

More than 4,300 pounds of supplies and research experiments meant to benefit from the microgravity environment of the space station will be returned to Earth by Dragon. Researchers may gather data with little sample exposure to Earth’s gravity thanks to splashing down off the coast of Florida, which expedites the transportation of the experiments to NASA’s Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Planet Habitat-03, which evaluates whether genetic adaptations in one generation of plants grown in space can transfer to the next generation, is among the scientific equipment and materials that are being returned to Earth. Among the earliest multi-generation studies on plant life conducted in orbit is this one.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is conducting a study called Cell Gravisensing, which examines how cells perceive and react to gravity. Findings may encourage the creation of medications to treat osteoporosis and muscular atrophy.

Genes in Space-10, a student-led initiative that aims to quantify the length of telomeres—cap-like structures at the end of DNA strands that shorten with aging but have been discovered to grow in space—is also making a comeback on Dragon.

Furthermore, samples from Neuronix (Innovative Paralysis Therapy Enabling Neuroregeneration) and MaRVIn-PCIM (Microgravity Research for Versatile Investigations-Phase Change in Mixtures) are also making their way back to Earth for scientific examination.

As SpaceX’s 29th commercial resupply services mission for NASA, Dragon arrived at the station on Nov. 11 and delivered over 6,500 pounds of hardware for the station, crew supplies, and research projects. On November 9, the spacecraft took off from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

These are but a handful of the hundreds of studies in the fields of physical sciences, Earth and space science, biology and biotechnology that are presently underway aboard the orbiting laboratory. Through NASA’s Artemis program, advancements in these fields will assist maintain astronauts’ health during extended space missions and showcase technology for upcoming robotic and human exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.