The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft of the 28th Commercial Delivery Mission (CRS-28) docked automatically to the Harmony module of the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Woody Hoburg and Frank Rubio watched the complex operation from inside the ISS.
The spacecraft was launched into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the launch of which on June 5 was the 38th for SpaceX this year; this proves the effectiveness of the reuse of the company’s space flight system. After separating the stages of the Falcon 9 rocket, the first one returned to Earth and landed on the floating platform Just a Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.
After docking to the ISS, the station crew unloaded the payload, which, in addition to scientific equipment, also included fruits such as apples, cherries, grapefruits, oranges, blueberries, as well as a variety of cheeses, NASA reported.
The ISS crew received a pair of IROSA (International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays) folding solar panels. This is the third set of such batteries that are launched in the cargo compartment of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. After installing x on the outer surface of the ISS, they will provide an increase in power for research and operations on the space station by 20-30%, the space agency notes.
A camera has also arrived at the ISS, which will be used by students of York University in Toronto to observe the snow and ice cover of northern Canada in order to improve climate monitoring.
Among other studies that were delivered to the space station, there was an experiment with DNA Genes in Space-10, developed by students and sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory. The cargo also contained the next generation of seeds for the NASA Plant Habitat-03 project, it explores the adaptation of plants to the space environment.
Dragon will remain docked to the ISS until the end of June, after which it will return to Earth. But it will not burn with garbage, and will bring to the surface the results of research and other cargo, landing in the ocean near the coast of Florida.
Earlier we reported on how the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in the sky scared eyewitnesses.
According to NASA
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