Today , SpaceX ’s Dragon capsule was successfully berthed to the International Space Station ( ISS ) , lade with 2,500 kilograms ( 5,500 pound ) of supply and experiments . It ’s the first fourth dimension a Dragon fomite has impose the station since July 2016 , and is SpaceX ’s tenth scheduled consignment commission to the ISS , phone CRS-10 .
Dragon was launched towards the post onSunday , February 19on a Falcon 9 rocket . The launching took place from the historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center ( KSC ) in Florida , once used to launch the Space Shuttle and Saturn V. This was thesecondsuccessful SpaceX launching since an blowup in September prime their fleet .
Dragon start its coming this morning , andwas capturedby the station ’s robotic Canadarm2 at 5.44am EST ( 10.44am GMT ) by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet . Capture took place about 400 km ( 250 miles ) above the west coast of Australia .
The arm then brought Dragon into the place , moor it with the US Harmony module at 8.12am EST ( 1.12pm GMT ) today . A spot is when a space vehicle does not dock independently with another , but rather is grab by an arm and dock manually .
space vehicle do independently dock , though , notably Russia ’s man Soyuz and unmanned Progress fomite . And there ’s in reality a latter fomite already in space , Progress 66 , which will be dock with the station tomorrow at 3.34am EST ( 8.34am GMT ) and remaining there till June .
Dragon is going to spend four weeks attached to the place , move over the work party time to offload its cargo . This include severalinteresting experiments , such as one that will investigate a pathogen ofMRSAon plank . This will let investigator see how MRSA evolves in microgravity , helping us tackle it better back on Earth , where it is responsible for 11,000 Death a year in the US alone .
SpaceX has 10 more cargo deputation to the ISS schedule through to the end of 2019 . This year , they ’re also expecting to do an unmanned test launching of their crewed Dragon vehicle , and launch their new giant skyrocket , the Falcon Heavy , for the first time .
