A private space capsule's first contracted cargo mission to the International Space Station is slated to launch Oct. 7, NASA officials announced Thursday.

SpaceX's robotic Dragon spacecraft is set to blast off atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:34 p.m. EDT on Oct. 7. A backup launch opportunity is available the following day, officials said.

The mission will kick off Dragon's first-ever bona fide supply run to the station. California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion NASA contract to make 12 such unmanned flights.

When it leaves the pad, Dragon will be carrying about 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of supplies, officials said. Much of the gear will support the 166 different scientific investigations including experiments in plant cell biology, human biotechnology and materials demonstrations planned during the station's current Expedition 33.

If all goes according to plan, Dragon will rendezvous with the station on Oct. 10, at which point Expedition 33 commander Sunita Williams of NASA and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide will grapple it with the orbiting lab's robotic arm.

Dragon will stay attached to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module for several weeks while the Expedition 33 crew unloads the capsule and then loads it back up again with cargo to return to Earth.

Dragon is scheduled to depart the station in late October. It will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, carrying 734 pounds (333 kg) of scientific materials and 504 pounds (229 kg) of space station hardware, officials said.

The Oct. 7 flight won't mark Dragon's maiden mission to the $100 billion orbiting complex.

In May, Dragon became the first private vehicle ever to visit the station during a historic demonstration mission that sought to gauge SpaceX's readiness to begin its contracted flights.

NASA also inked a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to make eight unmanned supply runs to the station with its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket.

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SpaceX launch to space station is Oct. 7

The SpaceX Dragon is making a return trip to the International Space Station next month.

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SpaceX Is Heading Back To The Space Station Next Month

Washington, Sep 21 (IANS) A private capsule is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on a cargo mission Oct 7, US space agency NASA announced.

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Private capsule to launch cargo to space station

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 9:19 AM EDT, Fri September 21, 2012

SpaceX will begin its first official resupply flight to International Space Station on October 7, NASA said.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- SpaceX will begin its first official resupply flight to International Space Station on October 7, NASA announced Thursday.

Following the success of a demonstration flight in May, the privately owned space company is scheduled to transport about 1,000 pounds of supplies to the space station and bring back more than 1,200 pounds of scientific material and space station hardware.

SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth after 'grand slam' space mission

It will be the first of 12 such missions, NASA said.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and unmanned Dragon cargo spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral at 8:34 p.m. ET on October 7, with the next day as a backup date.

The CRS-1 mission should reach the space station on October 10 and return several weeks later.

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NASA sets launch date for resupply

A private space capsule's first contracted cargo mission to the International Space Station is slated to launch Oct. 7, NASA officials announced today (Sept. 20).

Excerpt from:

Private Spacecraft to Launch Space Station Cargo On Oct. 7

Handheld "tricorders" from "Star Trek" remain just a science fiction fantasy for astronauts who need advanced medical care in space. But a new version of full-body scanning technology has the right size and power requirements to possibly fit aboard the International Space Station.

The smaller, cheaper version of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine could provide "slice" images of astronauts' bodies to improve studies of human health in space issues such as bone and muscle loss in low-gravity environments or the effects of deep-space radiation. Space explorers living on moon bases or traveling to Mars could also benefit from having such medical technology available during missions lasting for months or years.

"I would like to build a facility-class, whole-body-sized MRI," said Gordon Sarty, acting chairman of the biomedical engineering division at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. "Such a project would require an agreement between the ISS space agencies."

The compact MRI could weigh less than a ton one-twentieth of a ton for a smaller version that scans arms and legs and would require far less power than traditional MRI. Costs for the full-body MRI could drop from $2 million to as low as $200,000.

Sarty presented his team's compact MRI technology at AIAA Space 2012, a conference organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, on Sept. 13. He hopes to win funding from the Canadian Space Agency to launch the machine to the space station around 2020.

MRI machines work by using radiofrequency coils to broadcast signals to the human body and receive return signals to build an image of the body's innards. Gradient coils control the machine's magnetic field to produce the precise "slice" images of certain parts of the body.

But MRI technology has limits that would make it both difficult and risky to operate on the space station. Typical MRI machines weigh about 11 tons or more because they rely upon heavy superconducting magnets cooled by liquid helium, and also create stray magnetic fields that could interfere with the space station's operations. Another problem comes from the MRI gradient coils' need to consume huge amounts of power in short bursts. [8 Surprising High-Tech Uses for Helium]

"These characteristics make it impractical and potentially dangerous to take a conventional MRI into space," Sarty told InnovationNewsDaily.

Compact MRI uses two different technologies to get around such problems. First, it uses a permanent Halbach magnet that is lighter than the superconducting magnet and does not create stray magnetic fields outside the magnet. Second, the compact MRI eliminates the power-hungry gradient coils by using Transmit Array Spatial Encoding (TRASE) that encodes images through the radiofrequency coil alone.

The smaller MRI technology has many uses far beyond space it could improve overall medical care on Earth by making the cheaper machines available around the world. Its smaller size could also lead to easier use of MRIs in battlefield hospitals or distant parts of the world with limited space and power.

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New, Compact Body Scanner Ready for Space Station

[Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.]

SpaceX (Hawthorne, Calif.), the first commercial space company to send a cargo ship to the space station, is scheduled to launch its first resupply mission under a NASA contract on Oct. 7. SpaceX successfully berthed its unmanned Dragon cargo ship to the station in May, fulfilling the requirements of a NASA contract that clears the way for 12 resupply missions under the space agencys Commercial Resupply Services initiative.

NASA said SpaceX will ferry about 1,000 pounds of supplies to the space station during the CRS-1 mission, including items being used for a range of scientific experiments. Dragon will return to Earth about 734 pounds of science experiments and space station hardware.

While NASA confirmed the readiness of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon capsule, previous SpaceX launches have been delayed by NASA to verify mission software essential for guiding the unmanned craft to the space station.

The space station commercial resupply program replaces the space shuttle, which was retired by NASA last year.

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SpaceX booked for October return to space station

A glitch with a Russian spacecraft has helped clear the way for a private capsule's first contracted cargo flight to the International Space Station early next month, NASA officials say.

Russia's Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft was originally set to launch three astronauts toward the station on Oct. 15. But the Soyuz's liftoff will be delayed by about a week while technicians install a replacement part to fix a technical issue, Russian space officials announced Sunday.

The window is thus open fairly wide for SpaceX's Dragon capsule to blast off in the first two weeks of October.

"The new launch date will help de-conflict the station's schedule for the upcoming launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft," NASA's Amiko Kauderer said in an International Space Station mission commentary on Monday.

Dragon could lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as early as Oct. 9 or Oct. 10, officials have said. California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 robotic cargo runs to the orbiting lab, and October's flight will be the first of these 12.

But it won't mark the capsule's first visit to the space station. In May, Dragon became the first private spacecraft ever to dock with the $100 billion orbiting complex during a historic demonstration flight.

NASA also signed a $1.9 billion contract with Virginia-based firm Orbital Sciences Corp. to make eight robotic supply runs to the station with its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket. Orbital plans to fly a demonstration mission to the orbiting lab later this year.

Space news from NBCNews.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The first rock that NASA's Mars Curiosity rover will touch for science's sake is a pyramid-shaped chunk that's been named in honor of a top rover engineer.

Three astronauts departed the space station over the weekend, leaving just three crew members aboard the 430-ton orbiting complex. The Soyuz TMA-06A will bring the current Expedition 33 to its full complement of six crewmates, delivering NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin to the station.

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SpaceX prepares for space station launch

'I'm happy to be done,' Williams said from the International Space Station Sunday after she crossed the orbital finish line. 'It wasn't easy, and I'm sure everybody in California's very happy to be done too.'

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has completed the first triathlon in space, running, biking and "swimming" along with athletes in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California over the weekend.

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"I'm happy to be done," Williams said from the International Space Station Sunday (Sept. 16) after she crossed the orbital finish line. "It wasn't easy, and I'm sure everybody in California's very happy to be done too."

Sunita Williamsis the U.S. commander of the Expedition 33 crew aboard the space station, which is orbiting Earth about 240 miles (386 km) overhead. She used exercise equipment, including a stationary bike, treadmill and strength-training machine specially formulated for weightlessness, to simulate thetriathlon experience in space.

After "swimming" half a mile (0.8 km), biking 18 miles (29 km), and running 4 miles (6.4 km), Williams finished with a time of one hour, 48 minutes and 33 seconds, she reported. [Astronaut Runs Triathlon In Space | Video]

The space station has its own treadmill and stationary bike, which use harnesses and straps in place of gravity to keep astronauts from floating away. To simulate the swimming portion of the race, Williams used what's called the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) to do weightlifting and resistance exercises that approximate swimming in microgravity.

"It's critically important to understand human physiology and how to keep you strong on orbit," NASA's flight director in Mission Control said after Williams completed the triathlon, congratulating her on a race "well done."

Exercise is mandatory for all astronauts, because without it spaceflyers' muscles and bones would deteriorate in weightlessness.

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NASA astronaut Sunita Williams completes first-ever space triathalon

Space Triathlon Runner Sunita Williams

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams completed a triathlon from space Sept. 16, 2012, using an orbital treadmill to complete the running portion, a stationary bicycle for the biking leg, and a resistance machine to simulate swimming.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams (front left) takes command of the International Space Station from cosmonaut Gennady Padalka (front right) during a ceremony marking the start of the Expedition 33 increment aboard the space station on Sept. 15, 2012.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer and commander of the International Space Station's Expedition 33 crew, poses for a photo with her spacesuit ahead of an Aug. 30, 2012, spacewalk.

The International Space Station's Expedition 33 crew. From left: NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, Japannese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford.

The Expedition 33 patch depicts the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting around the Earth, and into the future. Image released December 2011.

The Soyuz TMA-05M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15, 2012. Crewmembers for Expeditions 32 & 33 were flying to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz TMA-05M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15, 2012.

Expedition 32/33 crew members leave building 254 following their suited up for launch July 15, 2012 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The grid structure at the upper side of each Aquatic Habitat, an aquarium for the International Space Station, captures air in each grid, while preventing water from escaping. Air will be injected with special syringe by the crew prior to the start of an investigation in 2012.

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Photos: Space Station's Expedition 33 Mission

A glitch with a Russian spacecraft has helped clear the way for a private capsule's first contracted cargo flight to the International Space Station early next month, NASA officials say.

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Private Capsule Set to Launch Space Station Cargo Next Month

17-09-2012 05:20 The Soyuz spacecraft undocks with the International Space Station and lands on Earth in Kazakhstan. . Report by Katie Lamborn. Like us on Facebook at and follow us on Twitter at . Subscribe to ITN News!

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Soyuz spacecraft undocks from International Space Station and lands on Earth in Kazakhstan - Video

17-09-2012 04:29 Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams has taken over the command of the International Space Station, becoming the second woman in history to do so, even as a three-member crew of the Expedition 32 returned safely to earth, wrapping up a mission lasting more than four months. The three-man crew onboard a Russian-made Soyuz capsule touched down successfully in central Kazakhstan steppe this morning after spending 123 days at the Space Station. For more info log on to:

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Sunita Williams takes over command at space station - Video

A WOMAN took command of the International Space Station for only the second time as three US and Russian colleagues made a safe return from the orbiting space lab to the Kazakh steppe.

The Soyuz TMA-04M capsule touched down with US astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin aboard, after deploying a huge white parachute and making a pin-point descent with helicopters tracking its progress.

NASA television footage showed the smiling men relaxing in lounge chairs and sipping warm drinks from thermoses while medical teams checked their pulses and chatted to them about their trip.

"It's good to be home," a NASA official quoted Acaba as saying the moment he was pulled out of the Russian capsule to mark the formal end of his 125-day stay in space.

The crew then set what may become a new tradition by signing their names on the Soyuz capsule in honour of their journey.

"I have not seen that before," a NASA television commentator observed.

The three leave behind another trio led by new commander Suni Williams - a US space veteran who has logged the most days in orbit by a woman as well as the greatest number of hours conducting space walks.

Williams is now in charge of a crew also comprised of Japan's Aki Hoshide and the Russian Yury Malenchenko.

The trio had been set to be joined by a new expedition on October 17.

But Russian space officials said they may have to delay the next lift-off by about a week due to the necessary replacement of a piece of Soyuz TMA-06M on-board equipment.

Continued here:

Woman takes command of Int'l Space Station

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The Soyuz capsule floats as it brings Commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin to a landing area near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. When it detached from the space station, the capsule was over Kenya.

Carla Cioffi/NASA

The capsule lands, after its braking engines ease its final meter of descent.

Carla Cioffi/NASA

The Soyuz TMA-04M capsule lands in a remote area near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, Monday. Padalka, Acaba and Revin returned from five months onboard the International Space Station, where they served as members of the Expedition 31 and 32 crews.

Carla Cioffi/NASA

U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams is now in command of the International Space Station, after receiving control of the facility this weekend. Three departing astronauts whose capsule left the station early Monday landed safely three and a half hours later.

For NPR's Newscast, Peter van Dyk filed this report from Moscow:

"The Soyuz capsule carrying American Joe Acaba and Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin touched down in Kazakhstan as scheduled, almost four hours after leaving the space station. Before leaving, Padalka turned command of the orbiter over to Sunita Williams, making her just the second woman to lead an ISS expedition. She will celebrate her birthday on Wednesday with her two colleagues - a Japanese astronaut and Russian cosmonaut."

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Astronauts Return From Space Station, As An American Takes Command

16-09-2012 10:33 Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka ceremonially hands over control of the International Space Station to Expedition 33's Suni Williams. . Report by Sophie Foster. Like us on Facebook at and follow us on Twitter at . Subscribe to ITN News!

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International Space Station: Formal handover of power - Video

Three International Space Station crew have made it safely back home, landing early this morning in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz TMA-04M.

Cosmonauts commander Gennady Padalka, flight engineer Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut and flight engineer Joe Acaba touched down just before 4am BST (8:53 local time), after decoupling from the International Space Station's Poisk module five hours earlier.

The 'nauts spent 123 days aboard the station to finish Expedition 32, which featured multiple spacewalks to prep the Pirs module for its replacement and attach a new power-switching unit.

Flicking that switch proved to be harder than the expedition expected when a bolt kept sticking, forcing the crew to take a second run at it.

Japanese 'naut Akihiko Hoshide and NASA 'naut Sunita Williams took those two walks, before lining up to take control of the station and move into Expedition 33 after the Soyuz left.

Williams takes over as commander, while flight engineers Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko make up the rest of the crew until 12 November.

The station will get a bit more crowded up when flight engineers Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin launch on 15 October for a rendezvous with the ISS on 17 October.

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Space Station 'nauts touch down on Kazakh steppe

Three members of the Expedition 32 crew undocked from the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth on Sunday, wrapping up a mission lasting more than four months.

Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA, and Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, undocked their Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft from the space station at 7:09 p.m. EDT and landed north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 10:53 p.m. (8:53 a.m., Sept. 17, Kazakhstan time). The trio arrived at the station May 17 and spent 125 days in space, 123 of which were aboard the orbiting laboratory.

After the Soyuz spacecraft separated from the space station, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams took command of Expedition 33. Williams is the second woman to command the station. She and her crewmates, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will work aboard the station as a three-person crew until the arrival of three new crew members, including NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, in mid-October.

Acaba, Padalka and Revin orbited Earth 2,000 times and traveled 52,906,428 miles. Padalka now ranks fourth for the most days spent in space -- a total of 711 days during four flights.

To follow Twitter updates from NASA's Expedition 33 astronauts, visit: http://twitter.com/Astro_Suni and https://twitter.com/Aki_Hoshide

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

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International Space Station Astronauts Land Safely in Kazakhstan

Washington, Sep 17 (IANS) Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams has taken over command of the International Space Station (ISS), Yet another feather in her cap as she already holds three records for female space travellers.

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Sunita Williams takes over space station command

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three station fliers returned to Earth from the International Space Station Sunday, dropping to a bullseye landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA flight engineer bid their three space station crewmates farewell Sunday, strapped into their Soyuz ferry craft, undocked from the lab complex and fell back to Earth, making a pinpoint landing in Kazakhstan to close out a 125-day voyage.

Descending through a clear blue sky under a large orange-and-white parachute, the charred Soyuz TMA-04M descent module settled to a rocket-assisted touchdown near the town of Arkalyk at 10:53 p.m. EDT (8:53 a.m. Monday local time).

NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba relaxes and pumps his fist after being helped out of the Soyuz TMA-04M descent module following a flawless landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan

The final stages of the descent were carried live on television relayed through the Russian mission control center and NASA's satellite network, showing the last-second firing of the crew's braking rockets and billowing clouds of dust and smoke as the module touched down and the parachute collapsed.

Russian recovery teams deployed near the landing site quickly rushed in, reporting the descent module had tipped over on its side, a relatively common occurrence.

They quickly got to work opening the main hatch to help Soyuz commander Gennady Padalka, flight engineer Sergei Revin and Joseph Acaba out of the cramped module after four months in the weightlessness of space. Padalka, the first out, looked relaxed and in good spirits as he rested in a recliner and enjoyed a cup of tea. Revin and Acaba quickly followed suit and all three were given quick medical exams before a two-hour helicopter flight to Kustanai.

At that point, the crew planned to split up, with Padalka and Revin flying back to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City near Moscow while Acaba flies back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston aboard a NASA jet.

Touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan marked the conclusion of a 53-million-mile 2,000-orbit voyage that began with liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on May 15.

It also moved Padalka up to No. 4 on the list of most experienced space fliers, with 711 days in orbit over four space flights. Acaba has now logged 138 days aloft during two missions while Revin's mark will stand at 125 days for his first flight.

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Soyuz brings three station fliers home to pinpoint landing