Beyond the notable fact a commercial space company will be flying its fourth payload to the International Space Station, SpaceX's next delivery mission will help kick off the orbiting lab's next era of Earth-focused exploration.

Under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Commercial Resupply Services contract program, SpaceX -- known formally as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. -- is scheduled this coming Saturday, Sept. 20, to launch one of its Falcon 9 transport vehicles from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The mission is set for a 2:16 a.m. lift-off -- but, if needed, could be pushed back to Sunday, Sept. 21, at around 1:53 a.m., according to a NASA news release.

The giant SpaceX rocket will be carrying a Dragon cargo module loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, including scientific experiments, technology demonstrations and materials critical for the implementation of 255 science and research investigations that will occur during the station's Expeditions 41 and 42.

The science payload will in particular include the ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat, that will "monitor ocean winds for climate research, weather predictions and hurricane monitoring from the space station," according to the space agency release.

By the end of the decade, six Earth science instruments will be mounted on the the station, which is coming "into its own as an Earth-observing platform," Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the International Space Station Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement.

The mission, designated SpaceX CRS-4, is the fourth of 12 SpaceX flights NASA contracted with the company to resupply the space station. It will be the fifth trip by a Dragon spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory.

New technology riding aboard the Dragon -- and set for orbital testing -- will include the Special Purpose Inexpensive Satellite, or SpinSat, which will allow scientists to better understand how a small satellite moves and positions itself in space using new thruster technology, and the 3-D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration, which will serve as the first time a 3-D printer is utilized in space.

The Dragon will remain attached to the space station's Harmony module for more than four weeks before it returns to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California with almost two tons of experiment samples and equipment sent back from the station.