SpaceX Dragon’s upgraded cargo ship successfully docked with the ISS
It became known that the Dragon cargo spacecraft of the American company SpaceX, launched yesterday from the site at Cape Canaveral, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The docking took place at 21:40 Moscow time, and the process of its completion was published on the official account of the American aerospace agency NASA on Twitter.
The NASA report notes that the current docking for SpaceX spacecraft was autonomous for the first time. In addition, for the first time in history, two SpaceX ships are moored to an orbital station. Recall that the Dragon spacecraft, which delivered astronauts to the ISS in November this year, continues to remain at the station.
It is worth noting that SpaceX has delivered cargo to the ISS for the 21st time as part of its collaboration with NASA. It is noteworthy that this time, for the first time, an updated version of the Dragon ship was used, the carrying capacity of which is 20% higher compared to the previous model. In addition, this ship is capable of docking with the orbital station in autonomous mode and can be used up to five times, whereas the previous version of Dragon was designed for only three flights.
Thus, the SpaceX spacecraft delivered about 3 tons of cargo to the ISS, including a supply of food, household items, and various equipment that will be used by American astronauts during research. The cargo ship will stay on the ISS for about a month, after which it will be returned to Earth along with the results of the experiments conducted by the astronauts.
