{"id":13044,"date":"2019-07-28T00:25:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T16:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-dragon-cargo-capsule-arrives-at-space-station\/"},"modified":"2019-07-28T00:25:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T16:25:27","slug":"spacexs-dragon-cargo-capsule-arrives-at-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-dragon-cargo-capsule-arrives-at-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo capsule arrives at space station"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_39853\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39853\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39853\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dragon_arrival.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dragon_arrival.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dragon_arrival-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dragon_arrival-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dragon_arrival-678x381.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39853\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Dragon cargo capsule in the grasp of the space station\u2019s robotic arm Saturday. Credit: NASA TV\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A SpaceX Dragon supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Saturday carrying a new docking mechanism, a spacesuit for future spacewalks, and a 3D bioprinter to test the feasibility of manufacturing human tissue in microgravity.<\/p>\n<p>Astronaut Nick Hague, at the controls of the space station\u2019s Canadian-built robotic arm, grappled the Dragon cargo craft at 9:11 a.m. EDT (1311 GMT) Saturday as the complex soared 267 miles (429 kilometers) over the coast of southern Chile.<\/p>\n<p>The Dragon spacecraft delivered&nbsp;5,097 pounds (2,312 kilograms) of supplies, equipment and research investigations for the station\u2019s six-person Expedition 60 crew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to congratulate the team across the globe that makes delivering a vehicle like this \u2014 it\u2019s pretty looking at it out the window \u2014 to the station with science and cargo and things to keep us busy, so the mission continues,\u201d Hague said in a transmission to mission control.<\/p>\n<p>Ground controllers took command of the robotic arm later Saturday to maneuver the Dragon spacecraft to a berthing port on the space station\u2019s Harmony module, where 16 bolts drove closed to firmly connect the cargo ship to the orbiting research outpost.<\/p>\n<p>The station planned to open hatches Sunday leading into the newly-arrived cargo freighter to begin unpacking the ship\u2019s pressurized compartment.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Capture!<\/p>\n<p>Today my crewmate @AstroHague and I captured the @SpaceX #Dragon, filled with over 5,000 pounds of science and supplies. Still celebrating Apollo anniversaries on @Space_Station with the #Apollo50th emblem on the Dragon vehicle. Can you spot it? pic.twitter.com\/f8YviJDBBW<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) July 27, 2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Dragon spacecraft arrived at its destination Saturday is on its third mission to the space station, following previous trips into orbit in 2015 and 2017. It\u2019s the first time SpaceX has flown a Dragon capsule three times.<\/p>\n<p>The automated cargo carrier lifted off Thursday atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got about 5,000 pounds of science, critical spares, food and other items on this flight, also including, externally, the International Docking Adapter No. 3,\u201d said Bill Spetch, NASA\u2019s deputy manager of space station transportation integration, in a pre-launch press conference. \u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to getting this on there. It\u2019s an important piece of hardware for the future of ISS as it sets the stage for how we are going operate with commercial crew vehicles and our partners in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The third International Docking Adapter, or IDA-3, will accommodate the Crew Dragon and Starliner commercial crew ferry ships in development by SpaceX and Boeing.<\/p>\n<p>IDA-3 was built by Boeing to replace a unit lost during a SpaceX launch failure in 2015. SpaceX successfully delivered IDA-2 to the station in 2016, and the new docking mechanism was first used in March by SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight before officials clear astronauts to ride the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>NASA said in 2016 it was paying Boeing $9 million to construct the replacement docking adapter using spare parts left over from the first two units.<\/p>\n<p>The space station\u2019s robotic arm will pull IDA-3 out of the Dragon cargo capsule\u2019s unpressurized aft payload bay and place it on the space-facing zenith port of the space station\u2019s Harmony module in mid-August, allowing Boeing\u2019s Starliner and SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsules to park at the station at the same time, using two separate docking adapters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we rotate crews through the vehicle, we want to have them time to directly hand over face-to-face, so enabling those two docked vehicles is very important,\u201d Spetch said.<\/p>\n<p>The new docking mechanisms are designed for attachment to the station\u2019s space shuttle-era docking ports. The Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft employ a different docking system design than the shuttle.<\/p>\n<p>Two astronauts will head outside the station next month to finish up connections between IDA-3 and the Harmony module.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_39657\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39657\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39657\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/48137726676_c04369d9d5_k.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/48137726676_c04369d9d5_k.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/48137726676_c04369d9d5_k-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/48137726676_c04369d9d5_k-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/48137726676_c04369d9d5_k-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The third International Docking Adapter, designed to accommodate commercial crew vehicles built by Boeing and SpaceX, was loaded inside the trunk of SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo craft in June. Credit: NASA\/Isaac Watson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A habitat carrying 40 female mice also launched inside SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft. The capsule will return to Earth from its month-long mission with 20 of the mice, and specimens from the mice will distributed to medical and biological researchers to investigate how spaceflight affected the animals\u2019 muscles, bones, immune systems and organs.<\/p>\n<p>The other 20 mice will remain on the station to undergo longer exposure to microgravity.<\/p>\n<p>NASA also placed a spacesuit inside the Dragon cargo craft\u2019s pressurized module for use by astronauts on spacewalks.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a breakdown of the cargo aboard the Dragon spacecraft:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Science Investigations:&nbsp;<\/strong>2,628 pounds (1,192 kilograms)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Crew Supplies:&nbsp;<\/strong>514 pounds (233 kilograms)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Spacewalk Equipment:&nbsp;<\/strong>394 pounds (179 kilograms)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vehicle Hardware:&nbsp;<\/strong>345 pounds (157 kilograms)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Computer Resources:&nbsp;<\/strong>38 pounds (17 kilograms)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unpressurized Payloads (IDA-3):&nbsp;<\/strong>1,177 pounds (534 kilograms)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other items delivered to the station inside Dragon\u2019s pressurized compartment include a 3D BioFabrication Facility developed by Techshot, an Indiana-based company, to demonstrate printing soft human tissue in microgravity, a capability researchers view as a stepping stone toward potentially manufacturing organs for transplant patients.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_39854\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39854\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39854\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D72WelYXoAELESr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D72WelYXoAELESr.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D72WelYXoAELESr-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D72WelYXoAELESr-326x245.jpg 326w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D72WelYXoAELESr-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39854\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo craft delivered Techshot\u2019s 3D BioFabrication Facility, seen here on the ground, to demonstrate technologies for manufacturing artificial human tissue in space. Credit: Techshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. also has an experiment on the Dragon supply ship. The tire manufacturer will study the formation of silica fillers, a common material used in consumer tires, in the microgravity environment of Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>According to Goodyear, knowledge gained from the experiment will help engineers evaluate potential improvements to the silica design process and rubber formulation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoodyear has been a pioneer in tire innovations related to space, with the first and only tires on the moon, numerous projects with NASA and now this,\u201d said Eric Mizner, Goodyear\u2019s director of global materials science, in a press release. \u201cIt underscores our passion for going to the ends of the earth \u2014 and beyond \u2014 to develop new technologies that help us deliver breakthrough products with true consumer benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Results from the space station experiment may yield improvements in fuel efficiency and other tire performance factors, according to Goodyear.<\/p>\n<p>Japanese scientists also sent up an experiment to grow moss in space, seeking to compare how the plant grows in space with its behavior on Earth. Mosses could be used as a food or oxygen source on future space missions, such as bases on the moon or Mars.<\/p>\n<p>The mission is SpaceX\u2019s 18th flight to resupply the space station under a $3.04 billion cargo transportation contract with NASA. First signed in 2008, the deal covers 20 resupply missions.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX also holds separate multibillion-dollar NASA contracts for additional supply deliveries in the early 2020s, and for the development of the Crew Dragon, or Dragon 2, capsule designed to carry both cargo and astronauts.<\/p>\n<p>The upgraded Dragon 2 vehicle is capable of docking directly to the space station, without relying on the robotic arm to capture it. SpaceX plans to begin using a cargo variant of the Dragon 2, similar in design to the human-rated Crew Dragon, for resupply missions next year, resulting in the retirement of the current Dragon design.<\/p>\n<p>The Dragon spacecraft that arrived at the station Saturday is scheduled to depart the international research complex Aug. 27 and head for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, returning home with research specimens and another spacesuit that requires refurbishment.<\/p>\n<p>Email<i style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> the author.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dragon cargo capsule in the grasp of the space station\u2019s robotic arm Saturday. Credit: NASA TV\/Spaceflight Now A SpaceX Dragon supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Saturday carrying a new docking mechanism, a spacesuit for future spacewalks, and a 3D bioprinter to test the feasibility of manufacturing human tissue in microgravity. Astronaut [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,1838,291,1395,2502,2548,717,1602],"class_list":["post-13044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-canadarm-2","tag-commercial-space","tag-dragon","tag-expedition-60","tag-ida-3","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss-cargo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}