On Thursday, March 21 at 4:55 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched Dragon’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-30) to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1).

Besides conducting various science experiments, Crew-8 will be receiving welcome food supplies including coffee. “They have two coffee kits, which I would probably be the most excited about,” Heidi Parris, associate program scientist at NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office, said during a Tuesday afternoon media conference. “The crew requested those, so we’re making sure we get them some fresh coffee.”

Dragon will autonomously dock with the space station on Saturday, March 23 at approximately 7:30 a.m. ET. Watch live coverage of docking starting at 5:30 a.m. ET on NASA’s website.

On its flight to the International Space Station, Dragon executes a series of burns that position the vehicle progressively closer to the station before it performs final docking maneuvers, followed by pressurization of the vestibule, hatch opening, and crew ingress.

From NASA ‘To The space station’

Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission, new scientific experiments and technology demonstrations for the agency are on the way to the International Space Station, including studies of technologies to measure sea ice and plant growth in space.

SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft, carrying more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory, launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at the space station on Saturday, March 23, at approximately 7:30 a.m. and remain at the orbital outpost for about a month.