SpaceX Dragon successfully docked with the International Space Station

According to NASA, quoted by Spanish news agency Efe, the Dragon, which weighs more than 3,300 kg, autonomously connected at 5:09 am US time (11:09 Lisbon time) to the Harmony EEI module, which was then over the Pacific Ocean.

With the arrival of this SpaceX capsule during an operation led by US Special Agency astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan MacArthur, five space structures are now attached to the EEI: the Cygnus-15 cargo ship, the Crew-2 manned mission and the Russian Progress 77 and Soyuz MS-18 “, and now” Dragon “.

Dragon carried two large, removable solar panels, the first of six that NASA will send to the space station in an effort to boost power supplies by 30%.

This first pair of panels, named ROSA in the English acronym, has already been tested at the EEI in 2017 and will be deployed during site visits on the 16th and 20th.

As part of the research materials, the Dragon transported a cargo of squid and tardigrades (segmented microscopic animals commonly known as water bears, which are only 1.5 millimeters in size in adulthood).

In the case of squid, the goal is to study the effects of microgravity on microbial symbiosis and, in the case of tardigrades, the ability to survive in the most adverse environmental conditions, the effects of microgravity and radiation.

Dragon will stay at EEI for about a month before returning with research material aboard the Falcon 9 rocket launched Wednesday on its maiden voyage, and will return to flight on its third manned mission at EEI. NASA and Elon Musk’s company, Crew-3, is slated for this fall.

It was the 22nd mission to supply the orbiting laboratory and was carried out under NASA’s public-private partnership with SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Musk, who is also the founder of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.

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