{"id":16390,"date":"2015-04-17T17:38:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T09:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-supply-ship-joins-up-with-space-station\/"},"modified":"2015-04-17T17:38:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T09:38:07","slug":"spacex-supply-ship-joins-up-with-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-supply-ship-joins-up-with-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX supply ship joins up with space station"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX's
SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo capsule flies underneath the space station on final approach Friday. Credit: NASA\/Terry Virts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Packed with an array of experiments and provisions, including a custom-made Italian espresso maker, SpaceX\u2019s unmanned Dragon cargo capsule reached the International Space Station on Friday after a precise laser-guided rendezvous more than 250 miles above Earth.<\/p>\n

The commercial supply ship launched from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, sailed into orbit a few minutes later, then kicked off a series of thruster burns to fine-tune its path toward the space station with nearly 2.2 tons of equipment inside its pressurized cabin.<\/p>\n

The last step in the rendezvous began early Friday, with the Dragon\u2019s final approach from underneath the space station guided by laser navigation sensors providing real-time data on each spacecraft\u2019s position and relative motion.<\/p>\n

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti extended the space station\u2019s 58-foot Canadian-built robotic arm to grab hold of the Dragon capsule at 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT), then engineers on Earth took over to steadily move the supply ship to a berthing port on the lab\u2019s Harmony module.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapture confirmed,\u201d said Dan Huot, NASA TV\u2019s commentator for Friday\u2019s arrival sequence. \u201cThe sixth Dragon resupply spacecraft captured by the crew of Expedition 43 \u2014 Samantha Cristoforetti at the controls \u2014 the Dragon and its 4,300 pounds of cargo now in the hands of the International Space Station.\u201d<\/p>\n

The link-up over the Pacific Ocean marked the sixth operational cargo delivery by SpaceX since 2012. NASA and SpaceX have a contract worth approximately $2 billion for 15 resupply missions through the end of 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston, capture is complete,\u201d radioed Terry Virts, commander of the station\u2019s Expedition 43 crew. \u201cWe are go for post-capture reconfiguration. Samantha did a perfect job capturing Dragon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virts and Cristoforetti tracked the Dragon\u2019s final approach from the space station\u2019s cupola module, a small room perched on the Earth-facing side of the complex with panoramic windows offering good views of the planet and visiting vehicles.<\/p>\n

Cristoforetti sent down her thanks a few moments after snaring the Dragon spacecraft with the robot arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say thank you to the folks at SpaceX and you guys in Houston,\u201d Cristoforetti told mission control. \u201cIt\u2019s been just amazing watching the launch, and knowing it was heading our way, and sure enough it came knocking at our door. It was steady as a rock, and we\u2019re just very, very happy to have it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Italy, Cristoforetti mentioned one of the cargo capsule\u2019s most unique payloads: an espresso maker made by Lavazza, a producer of coffee products based in Turin, Italy.<\/p>\n

\"The
The space station\u2019s expresso machine on the ground. Credit: Argotec<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have a new SpaceX docked mission coming up,\u201d Cristoforetti said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be busy, but lots of science and even coffee is in there, so that\u2019s pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

She later put on a Star Trek uniform and posed for a picture with the Dragon capsule, joking, \u201c\u2018There\u2019s coffee in that nebula\u2019 \u2026 ehm, I mean\u2026 in that Dragon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The espresso machine was developed in a partnership between Lavazza, the Italian Space Agency and Argotec, an Italian company which provides European food to space station crews and helps train European astronauts for space missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we are in a position to overcome the limits of weightlessness and enjoy a good espresso \u2014 the indisputable symbol of made in Italy products \u2014 on board the International Space Station,\u201d said Giuseppe Lavazza, vice president of Lavazza. \u201cWe are proud to have worked on this major project with Argotec, through the Lavazza Innovation Center, our division dedicated to research and product innovation: a scientific and engineering challenge which we hope will improve the living and nutrition quality of astronauts engaged on long missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA says the astronauts can use the espresso machine, dubbed ISSpresso, to brew coffee, tea, broth and other hot beverages. Lessons learned from the machine could help improve brewing methods in the future.<\/p>\n

An animal habitat with 20 mice, 600,000 tomato speeds, plant and worm specimens and spare parts for the space station\u2019s air revitalization system were also delivered by the Dragon spacecraft Friday.<\/p>\n

The mice will be euthanized and dissected by astronauts in orbit to help scientists study how their immune systems respond to infection in space.<\/p>\n

Researchers will also use the mice to examine intracranial pressure build-up in microgravity as they seek to find the cause of vision impairment experienced by some astronauts after long-duration space missions.<\/p>\n

The mission took up 4,387 pounds of cargo to the space station.<\/p>\n

The cargo manifest\u2019s breakdown includes 1,860 pounds of science experiments, 1,142 pounds of gear to maintain space station hardware, 1,102 pounds of food, clothing and provisions for the lab\u2019s six-person crew, 51 pounds of spacewalking equipment, and 35 pounds of computers and cameras.<\/p>\n

NASA says the cargo load will support 40 scientific investigations.<\/p>\n

The returnable logistics freighter is scheduled to depart the space station May 21 and head for Earth with 3,020 pounds of cargo inside, primarily research specimens such as refrigerated blood, urine and tissue samples from the mice launched inside the Dragon spaceship.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s delivery came three months after SpaceX\u2019s last resupply launch in January. The California-based space transport company has three more cargo flights to the space station scheduled before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The next SpaceX resupply launch is due June 19 at approximately 1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT).<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX\u2019s Dragon cargo capsule flies underneath the space station on final approach Friday. Credit: NASA\/Terry Virts Packed with an array of experiments and provisions, including a custom-made Italian espresso maker, SpaceX\u2019s unmanned Dragon cargo capsule reached the International Space Station on Friday after a precise laser-guided rendezvous more than 250 miles above Earth. The commercial […]<\/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":[1395,3790,717,1602,4069,4025,316,4054],"class_list":["post-16390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-dragon","tag-expedition-43","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss-cargo","tag-isspresso","tag-samantha-cristoforetti","tag-spacex","tag-spacex-6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16390"}],"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=16390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}