Event Can Be Viewed on the NASA channel: https://www.nasa.gov.
Stephen Holt, Class of 1976, calls highly anticipated spacecraft launches “Red Wine and Popcorn Movies” in that those who have worked on revolutionary new spacecraft can — at that point — only sit back and eagerly view the fruit of their labor. In Holt’s case, he’s worked on the spacecraft and its payload for the past year and a half as deputy chief engineer for NASA’s ILLUMA-T (Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) program.
Tonight (Nov. 9), at 8:28 p.m. EST, NASA and SpaceX are launching the company’s 29th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For anyone who wants to see the launch, it will be shown on the NASA channel at: https://www.nasa.gov.
According to a NASA news release, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will deliver new science investigations, food, supplies and equipment to the international crew, including NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment), which studies atmospheric gravity waves to understand the flow of energy through Earth’s upper atmosphere and space.
The NASA story continued that the spacecraft also will deliver NASA’s ILLUMA-T (Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), which aims to test high data rate laser communications from the space station to Earth via the agency’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration). Together, ILLUMA-T and LCRD will complete NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser communications relay system.
Arrival to the station is planned for 5:21 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 11. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbital outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
Holt has worked for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since his 1976 graduation from the College. He’s been closely involved with the International Space Station and James Webb Space Telescope.