Watch SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule dock with space station early Tuesday
A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule arrived on the International Space Station early Tuesday morning (June 6) with 7,000 kilos (3,175 kilograms) of provides and scientific experiments on board.
The robotic Dragon launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Monday (June 5) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and reached the orbital outpost at 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 GMT) after an 18-hour orbital chase. The capsule will stay docked to the space-facing port of the orbiting lab’s Harmony module for about three weeks.
The present Dragon mission known as CRS-28, as a result of it is the 28th flight SpaceX is flying for NASA below a collection of Commercial Resupply Services contracts. Among the mission’s cargo are two extra International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs, which will likely be put in on the orbiting outpost’s exterior by spacewalking astronauts to reinforce its energy output.
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Getting all of the iROSAs up and running will enhance the ISS’ electrical energy technology by 20% to 30%, NASA officers have mentioned.
The science gear delivered by the capsule features a expertise demonstration for autonomous space station docking programs known as CLINGER and Genes In Space-10, which is able to take a look at a option to measure the size of telomeres in microgravity.
Telomeres are areas of DNA on the finish of a chromosome. Telomeres shorten as a person will get older, a phenomenon related with the onset of some cancers and different ailments, in addition to basic age-related decline.
Dragon is predicted to remain on the ISS for 21 days on CRS-28, then come again all the way down to Earth for a parachute-aided ocean splashdown.
Dragon is the one cargo craft able to making such protected returns. The different two presently operational robotic freighters — Russia’s Progress automobile and Cygnus, which is constructed by American firm Northop Grumman — are designed to expend in Earth’s ambiance when their time in orbit is finished.
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