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<\/p>\nFollowing her launch on SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket, the company\u2019s CRS-19 Dragon spacecraft completed journey to the ISS. The resupply flight launch from Cape Canaveral\u2019s SLC-40 on Thursday before being captured by the Station\u2019s robotic arm on Sunday morning.\n<\/p>\n
The launch began the month-long CRS-19 mission which will see Dragon deliver new research and supplies to the space station before returning to Earth with surplus hardware and the results of scientific investigations conducted aboard the outpost.<\/p>\n
CRS-19 is the twenty-first flight of the first-generation version of Dragon and marks its twentieth mission to the International Space Station \u2013 a number that includes both its successful second demonstration flight under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and the CRS-7 flight which failed to reach orbit.<\/p>\n
The launch began what is expected to be the penultimate flight for this incarnation of Dragon, with the cargo version of the upgraded Dragon 2 spacecraft expected to take over next year under the second phase of NASA\u2019s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.<\/p>\n
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Dragon 2 approaches the ISS \u2013 envisioned by Nathan Koga for NSF\/L2<\/p>\n
Under CRS, both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman (the latter since its 2018 takeover of Orbital ATK) carry out regular uncrewed flights to the ISS, delivering a multitude of cargoes including provisions for the crew, space station hardware and scientific investigations. SpaceX was awarded an initial contract for twelve CRS missions in December 2008, with subsequent extensions increasing this to twenty flights.<\/p>\n
A new contract under the second phase of the program was announced in 2016, with Dragon and Northrop Grumman\u2019s Cygnus continuing while Sierra Nevada Corporation\u2019s Dream Chaser was also added to the program.<\/p>\n
The CRS vehicles form part of an international fleet of spacecraft supporting the space station, which also includes Russia\u2019s Progress and Japan\u2019s Kounotori. A Progress mission is currently due to lift off on Friday, arriving at the station on Monday, two days after Dragon if both missions stick to their schedules.<\/p>\n
Building on the success of CRS, NASA has contracted with SpaceX and Boeing to outsource crewed missions to the ISS under its Commercial Crew program, with the first astronauts expected to fly aboard these missions next year. SpaceX will use Dragon v2, an enhanced version of the Dragon spacecraft which was first demonstrated with the uncrewed DM-1 mission earlier this year. Boeing\u2019s Starliner is due to fly its demonstration mission later this month.<\/p>\n
NASA mission patches (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Before carrying out its CRS contracts, SpaceX flew two demonstration missions with Dragon under NASA\u2019s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The first of these was a short-duration free-flying test of Dragon in low Earth orbit, which launched on 8 December 2010 and splashed down three hours and nineteen minutes later. In late May 2012 the second mission, C2+, culminated in Dragon\u2019s first berthing and delivery of cargo to the International Space Station. Four months later, in early October, Dragon flew its first operational CRS mission.<\/p>\n Dragon is equipped to carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo \u2013 the former within its recoverable capsule and the latter in the aft trunk section which also houses the vehicle\u2019s solar arrays. The recoverable capsule provides a unique capability to return large amounts of cargo to Earth, whereas all of the other uncrewed spacecraft currently servicing the space station are not designed to survive reentry. Only the capsule is recovered \u2013 Dragon\u2019s trunk will burn up when it reenters Earth\u2019s atmosphere at the end of the mission.<\/p>\n The Dragon capsule can be reused for multiple missions. CRS-19 is the third flight for spacecraft C106, which first flew in September 2014 for the CRS-4 mission.<\/p>\n The first flight of this Dragon on CRS-4 \u2013 via NASA<\/p>\n After spending a month berthed at the space station Dragon returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. After extensive inspections and refurbishment C106 became the first Dragon to make a second trip into space with June 2017\u2019s CRS-11 flight. It is the second capsule to make a third flight, following C108 which flew the CRS-18 mission earlier this year. With the end of CRS Phase 1 and the Dragon v2 spacecraft due to come online next year, CRS-19 will be Dragon C106\u2019s last visit to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n Dragon\u2019s cargo for the CRS-19 mission includes thirty-eight experiments to be performed aboard the space station, as well as station equipment and supplies for the outpost\u2019s crew. In total, the spacecraft is carrying 2,617 kilograms (5,769 lb) of cargo, 1,693 kilograms (3,732 lb) of which is contained within the pressurized capsule. This includes 306 kilograms (675 lb) of equipment for the station, 65 kilograms (141 lb) of hardware to support future spacewalks, 15 kilograms (33 lb) of computer equipment and 256 kilograms (564 lb) of provisions for the crew.<\/p>\n Scientific payloads account for 977 kilograms (2,154 lb) of the pressurized cargo aboard Dragon. Highlights include Confined Combustion, which will investigate how flames behave and spread within differently-shaped containers to help improve understanding of how fires evolve \u2013 both in space and on Earth. New hardware for the Cold Atom Lab will aid gravitational research aboard the station. A food physiology experiment will study the effects of the astronauts\u2019 diets on their bodies.<\/p>\n The Germination of ABI Voyager Barley Seeds in Microgravity experiment will study the growth of barley grains in microgravity, investigating whether growth in the space environment alters the crop physically or genetically. The experiment \u2013 which is being conducted in partnership between NASA and brewery Anheuser-Busch \u2013 also incorporates a sample of dried seeds that will be grown upon their return to Earth to compare results.<\/p>\n Dragon will also deliver the Rodent Research 19 experiment, which will study the proteins myostatin and activin in rodents to see if they can help mitigate muscle and bone loss from long-duration spaceflight. Researchers hope that this will not only help astronauts on future space missions but also have applications for treating patients on earth with conditions such as osteoporosis and heart disease.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/NSF-2019-12-04-04-41-25-522.jpg\")
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