Suara.com – New Dragon cargo capsule SpaceX arrive at Space Station International (ISS), coincided with the birthday of an astronaut who was on the ISS on August 30 last.
The cargo ship was launched to deliver experimental robotic arms and many other research equipment and supplies.
“Congratulations to the NASA and SpaceX teams, and thank you. No one has ever sent me a spaceship for my birthday before. That’s the best birthday present,” said Megan McArthur, NASA astronaut which is its 50th anniversary.
The Dragon capsule docked with the ISS Harmony module at 10:30 a.m. EDT, ending a 32-hour orbital journey. The ISS and Dragon were hovering 425km over western Australia at the time.
Also Read:
Space Station Cracks, Danger Astronauts?
Dragon was launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on August 29, beginning the company’s 23rd robot supply mission to the ISS.
The capsule carries more than 2,200 kg of supplies and scientific experiments, including a new robotic arm that will undergo microgravity tests on the ISS.
“Space robots can also support repair, assembly and manufacturing tasks in orbit, lowering the cost of these tasks and contributing to increased commercial activity in space,” said a member of the experimental team called the GITAI S1 Robotic Arm Tech Demo.
Other experiments will test the performance of small drug-carrying implants in microgravity and measure the response of various materials to the space environment.
Reported from Space.com, Wednesday (1/9/2021), there are currently two Dragons docked at the ISS, including a new cargo ship and a manned capsule variant carrying NASA astronauts McArthur and Shane Kimbrough as well as Japanese and European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts.
Also Read:
SpaceX Launches Ants to Sea Monkeys into Space
The astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth in November, while two astronauts from NASA and Russia will remain on the ISS to continue the mission.
The cargo ship Dragon will return early after being scheduled to spend about a month on the ISS.
– .
