The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was seen flying into orbital during the daytime on Saturday as it continued towards the International Space Station (ISS) before docking. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said SpaceX Dragon became the fifth spacecraft currently parked at the space station after it docked autonomously.
Nasa also tweeted a video showing SpaceX Dragon approaching the station. “The SpaceX cargo Dragon flies into orbital daytime as it continues to approach the Space Station for docking this morning,” the US space agency tweeted.
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The resupply ship carried the 7300-pound crew supplies, including fresh lemons, onions, avocados and cherry tomatoes for the station’s seven astronauts and new solar arrays to boost the orbital lab’s power system. It also delivered numerous experiments to the space station like the understanding of microgravity on animal-microbe interactions (UMAMI) study, targeting improved cotton through on-orbit cultivation study, the cell science-04 experiment, butterfly IQ ultrasound device, a European Space Agency (ESA) investigation, Pilote, tests and iROSA among others.
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“The @SpaceX #Dragon docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 5:09 am ET this morning while traveling more than 250 miles over the South Pacific ocean,” the International Space Station tweeted when SpaceX Dragon docked to the space-facing side of the module.
Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur were monitoring docking operations for SpaceX Dragon, Nasa informed in a statement. “This 22nd contracted resupply mission for SpaceX delivers the new ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) to the space station in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft. The robotic Canadarm2 will extract the arrays and astronauts will install them during spacewalks planned for June 16 and 20,” the statement added.
Launched as the 22nd contracted commercial resupply mission on June 3, SpaceX Dragon will spend one month attached to the space station and will return to Earth with cargo and research, Nasa said in the statement.