Cosmic Log
After a month of unloading and reloading, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule was set loose from the International Space Station today and made a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The two tons of cargo that were returned to Earth include mice that were part of a study focusing on zero-G’s effects on bones and muscles — and Robonaut 2, a space robot that’s being sent down for repairs.
Two days after its launch, SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule was pulled in for its hookup to the International Space Station today.
SpaceX sent nearly three tons of supplies, hardware and experiments to the International Space Station today, using a Falcon 9 rocket booster and a Dragon capsule that have both been flown before.
The rocket rose from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT).
“We had a perfectly nominal mission, as we like around here,” SpaceX launch commentator John Federspiel said during a webcast from the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. “Falcon 9 performed its job splendidly.”
It’s the second “refurbish-and-reuse” mission of its kind. The first flight of a refurbished Falcon 9 first-stage booster with a reused Dragon took place last December.
Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station after a successful launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA’s Scott Tingle, Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov and Japan’s Norishige Kanai lifted off at 11:21 p.m. PT Saturday aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and are to arrive at the station on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a robotic SpaceX Dragon capsulelinked up with the station overnight, delivering 4,800 pounds of cargo.
For the first time, SpaceX is aiming to send up a refurbished Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station from a refurbished launch pad, atop a refurbished Falcon 9 rocket.
Liftoff is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. ET (7:35 a.m. PT) Dec. 15 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with webcasts planned by NASA as well as SpaceX.
It’ll be the first mission to take off from Pad 40 since an earlier Falcon 9 went up in flames during a pre-launch test in September 2016, doing significant damage to the complex.
SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule was set loose from the International Space Station today and returned to Earth with more than 3,800 pounds of cargo and experiments, including a set of live mice that will be studied after their stint in zero gravity.
The trip marked the completion of SpaceX’s 12th space station resupply mission under the terms of its multibillion-dollar contract with NASA. “Godspeed, Dragon 12,” Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli said as the Dragon was released by the station’s robotic arm.
Dragon’s parachute-assisted Pacific Ocean splashdown came five and a half hours later, at around 7:15 a.m. PT off the coast of Southern California. A recovery ship was sent to pick up the capsule and bring it back to Long Beach for shipment to SpaceX’s processing facility in Texas. The mice and other time-sensitive payloads will be delivered to NASA on an expedited basis.
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We’ve already gotten our first peek at the spacesuit that astronauts will wear when they’re riding in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk set hearts racing once again today when he sent out a picture showing the spacesuit being modeled next to the Dragon 2.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has sent a robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station with three tons of supplies and scientific experiments, including a supercomputer that could help blaze the trail to Mars.
The Spaceborne Computer project, pioneered by NASA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, will subject off-the-shelf computer hardware to a yearlong test under the challenging conditions of spaceflight. It’s one of more than 250 science experiments and investigations that will get a boost from the payloads packed on the Dragon.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he expects to see astronauts flying to the International Space Station on his company’s Dragon capsules by mid-2018 – but is downplaying a technology that would have opened the way for robotic “Red Dragon” missions to Mars.
His comments today at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, D.C., lent credence to suggestions that SpaceX was shelving its Red Dragon plan and shifting its focus to an Interplanetary Transport System capable of sending settlers to the Red Planet.
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
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.”