SpaceX CRS-16


SpaceX CRS-16, also known as SpX-16, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station launched on 5 December 2018 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was contracted by NASA and is flown by SpaceX.
This CRS mission is the first with the Falcon 9 Block 5. It carried the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation lidar as an external payload.

Launch

On February 2016, it was announced that NASA had awarded a contract extension to SpaceX for five additional CRS missions., a NASA Inspector General report had this mission manifested for August 2018, but it was later delayed to 29 November, 4 December, and 5 December 2018.
The first stage booster B1050.1 experienced a grid fin hydraulic pump stall on re-entry. This caused the first stage to go into a roll after the re-entry burn. It failed to reach Landing Zone 1, but recovered enough to achieve a water landing off Cape Canaveral. Shortly after the landing, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, stated the booster appeared undamaged and was being recovered. He also stated that if the damage is not enough to retire the booster, it "could be used for an internal SpaceX mission in the future".
On 13 January 2019, Dragon was released from ISS at 23:33 UTC and deorbited, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean approximately 5 hours later on 14 January at 05:10 UTC, returning more than of cargo to Earth.

Payload

NASA contracted for the CRS-16 mission from SpaceX and therefore determined the primary payload, date/time of launch, and orbital parameters for the Dragon space capsule. It carried the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation lidar and the Robotic Refueling Mission 3 as external payloads. Forty mice also flew with the payload in an experiment called Rodent Research-8.
The CRS-16 mission also carried a pair of CubeSats originally planned to launch aboard the Cygnus NG-10 International Space Station cargo resupply mission, but which were deferred. These included the UNITE CubeSat from the University of Southern Indiana and the TechEdSat-8 CubeSat from NASA's Ames Research Center.
Total Cargo5,673pounds / 2,573 kilograms
Total Pressurized Cargo with Packaging3,523 pounds / 1,598 kilograms
Unpressurized Payloads2,150 pounds / 975 kilograms