Mission CRS-17: the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has reached the International Space Station

Mission CRS-17: the Dragon cargo spacecraft captured by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm (Image NASA TV)
Mission CRS-17: the Dragon cargo spacecraft captured by the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm (Image NASA TV)

A little while ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station. David Saint-Jacques, assisted by his colleague Nick Hague, managed the operation then started moving the Dragon to the berthing point at the Harmony module. The cargo spacecraft blasted off last Saturday.

The Dragon spacecraft’s approach to the International Space Station follows a procedure that has become routine but remains long and delicate. The Station’s safety is the top priority so every little step of the Dragon gets checked. Only if all goes well in the spacecraft’s position and velocity they proceed with the next step and in case of any problems can be aborted at every step. Today the arrival was delayed following some communication problems with one of the TDRS satellites used by the ground crew to monitor the Dragon. The problem was solved switching to another TDRS satellite.

Tomorrow, the International Space Station crew will open the Dragon spacecraft’s hatch and will start unloading its cargo. As in various other resupply missions, there’s a group of mice whose health in microgravity conditions will be studied. After a period on the Station, they’ll be sent back to Earth.

The Dragon will leave the International Space Station with its new cargo. The CRS-17 mission will be completed with its descent into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. This last phase is important as well because various in-depth analyzes of samples can be carried out only in specialized laboratories on Earth.

This first part of the CRS-17 mission had no problems, however there were some consequences of the incident involving the Crew Dragon spacecraft on April 20. Probably the SuperDraco thrusters were the cause of the anomaly and consequently the mission of the Dragon space cargo ship started regularly but in the previous resupply missions the first stage attempted the landing at Cape Canaveral while last Saturday it landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship. This suggests that the Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral isn’t available, perhaps due to the investigation, perhaps due to the need to restore some equipment, in any case information about the incident are currently confidential.

The first stage used for the launch of this Dragon space cargo ship was new but on Saturday, in a press conference, news arrived that NASA and SpaceX reached an agreement to use it again for the CRS-18 mission and perhaps for the CRS- 19 as well.

The fact that the only deviation from normality in this first part of the CRS-17 mission is due to an incident in a test that concerns the development of another spacecraft shows how well everything went. In space missions there’s no routine in the sense that unexpected events can occur at any time ruining everything but the Dragon space cargo ship’s flight are really approaching routine.

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