"Everything from stem cells that could help us understand how human cancers start and spread after being exposed to near zero-gravity, to equipment that is paving the way toward servicing and refueling satellites while they’re in orbit will be on board,"
NASA officials said in a statement.
Other experiments and instruments returning on Dragon included: samples from a tissue regeneration and bone defect study, which studied how weightlessness affected the regrowth of lost bone and tissue from wounds; a prototype laser communications device for faster data transmission; a prototype for a space radiation proof computer for long space missions; and a
robotic refueling technology experiment for in-space refueling and satellite servicing.
This Dragon flight was SpaceX's tenth cargo delivery mission for NASA under a commercial cargo contract. SpaceX is also one of two companies (Boeing is the other) selected by NASA to fly astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX is developing a
crewed version of Dragon for those flights, while Boeing is building its own
CST-100 Starliner crew capsule.
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