After two days of journey from Earth, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) cargo ship Dragon has finally arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver an assortment of goods and experiment supplies that include what is hailed as the first 3D printer in space and a group of mice.
The cargo ship blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday to mark SpaceX's fourth resupply mission to the ISS under the California-based company's $1.6 billion contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for at least a dozen flights to transport supplies to the space agency's outpost in low Earth orbit. Last week, SpaceX, along with aircraft manufacturer Boeing, was also awarded billions worth of contract to transport astronauts to and from the ISS.
Alexander Gerst, a German astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA) used the station's 58-foot-long robotic arm to grab the Dragon capsule from orbit. Dragon, which is the only cargo spacecraft with the capability to return significant amounts of cargo from space, was bolted into place after two hours and will remain docked in the space station for about 30 days so the astronauts can unload and refill the Dragon with supplies that had to be returned to Earth.
"This was, indeed, a great flight of Dragon," Gerst radioed NASA's Mission Control in Houston. "We're happy to have a new vehicle on board."
Onboard the dragon is over 5,000 pounds of supplies that include the 3-D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration, an experimental 3D printer that was designed by the company Made in Space to work in microgravity.
"Testing a 3-D printer using relatively low-temperature plastic feedstock on the International Space Station is the first step towards establishing an on-demand machine shop in space, a critical enabling component for deep-space crewed missions and in-space manufacturing," NASA said of the 3D printer.
The resupply mission is also the first time that Dragon carried live mammals on board as the cargo included 20 mice that will be used in experiments aimed at assessing bone and muscle loss during long periods of spaceflights. Findings of these experiments could shed more light on the impacts of weightlessness that astronauts experience when working in space.
Dragon also carried a $26 million instrument called RapidScat, which will be attached to the outside of the ISS to measure ocean wind, new spacesuit batteries and of course, food and clothes for the astronauts working in orbit.
