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NASA’s commercial cargo provider SpaceX launched the Dragon refueling spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 6 at 11:17 a.m. The Falcon 9 rocket of the commercial refueling services (CRS) -21) took off from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space. Center in Florida.
SpaceX’s CRS-21 will deliver scientific research, supplies and equipment to NASA under its second resupply contract. For the first time, the Elon Musk-owned space agency has at least 2 of its capsules in orbit with the recent launch of the improved Dragon spacecraft.
“Dragons wherever you look,” Kenny Todd, deputy director of NASA’s space station program, told AP, adding that SpaceX aims to have at least one permanent capsule on the ISS.
The first-stage thruster on its fourth flight landed on an ocean platform that was used on a mission by SpaceX in May. Todd, who called the supplies the “best Christmas present” for NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, reported that the Dragon was carrying microbes and crushed asteroid samples for a biomining study, rapid blood testing devices, and forty mice for bone and eye research, among many other articles. in a 6,400-pound (2,900-kilogram) shipment.
[A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Credit: NASA]
[SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft is seen during final approach to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA]
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Supplies for Expeditions 64 and 65
Meanwhile, NASA reported in a statement that the Dragon spacecraft will be packed with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support more than 250 scientific and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 64 and 65.
He added that the Dragon’s trunk will carry Nanoracks’ Bishop airlock to transfer payloads between the inside and outside of the station. This will be the space station’s first airlock commercially funded by NASA for the ISS, the space agency reported. The airlock delivered by Dragon will assist astronauts aboard the ISS in robotics testing and satellite deployment, while serving as a space toolbox.
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(Image credit: NASA)
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