What do Prince and SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule, freshly arrived at the International Space Station, have in common? NASA astronaut Jack Fischer referred to the late musician today after he and his crewmates used the station’s robotic arm to latch onto the Dragon for its berthing at 6:52 a.m. PT. The robotic spacecraft, which was launched on Saturday atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, is the first Dragon to be reflown for a second space mission. That led Fischer to note “the special significance of SpaceX 11, which, if we follow the naming convention of the artist Prince, could be called the SpaceX formerly known as SpaceX 4.” Over the course of the next several weeks, the astronauts will unload nearly 6,000 pounds of cargo from the Dragon – preferably with Prince’s “Space” playing in the background.
We caught a #Dragon! @AstroPeggy & @Astro2Fish use @Space_Station’s robotic arm to capture @SpaceX’s cargo vehicle: https://t.co/mzKW5uDsTi pic.twitter.com/g258TK6dcK
— NASA (@NASA) June 5, 2017
