A little while ago SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station. Astronaut Jessica Meir, assisted by her colleague Andrew Morgan, 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.

Tomorrow, the International Space Station crew is scheduled to open the space cargo ship’s hatch and start unloading its contents. A specific operation will be needed to connect the Bartolomeo research platform, named after Christopher Columbus’ brother, which during the month will be transported to ESA’s Columbus module using the Canadarm2 robotic arm to be connected to it. In April, a spacewalk will be needed to perform the operations needed to make the Bartolomeo platform work.

The Dragon will depart from the International Space Station with its new cargo in about four weeks. The CRS-20 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.

The first part of the CRS-20 mission has gone smoothly and this Dragon cargo spacecraft is performing its third mission. This is the last mission of this version of the spacecraft and the last of the first SpaceX contract with NASA, including the additional missions awarded to Elon Musk’s company in 2016. This means that it was the last time that SpaceX’s cargo spacecraft was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm because the Dragon 2 has an automatic docking system.