A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-27 (Cargo Resupply Service 27) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly off the Florida Coast. The Dragon left the International Space Station a few hours earlier. For SpaceX, this was the 7th mission of the 2nd contract with NASA to transport supplies to the Station with the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.
Shortly after the splashdown, SpaceX’s recovery ship went to retrieve the Dragon to transport it to the coast. The cargo brought back to Earth will be delivered to NASA within a few hours. The Dragon spacecraft reached the International Space Station on March 16, 2023.
The Dragon spacecraft brought back to Earth almost 2,000 kg (about 4,300 lbs) of mixed cargo that include various scientific experiments and biological samples. Part of the samples is contained in the freezers because they need to be kept at low temperatures. The new version of the Dragon space freighter has twice the capacity to transport samples to Earth as the first version.
SpaceX is the only American company that has a spacecraft capable of bringing intact cargo back to Earth so the Dragon missions are really important for NASA. Samples produced during many of the experiments conducted on the International Space Station may require in-depth analyzes possible only in specialized laboratories on Earth. The cargoes are delivered to NASA within no more than 9 hours.
Biological samples are first of all the ones connected to medical check-ups on the crew. The Vascular Aging survey of the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) aims to monitor the alterations of the arteries in a prolonged state of microgravity with various tests which, among other things, collect blood samples.
Other biological samples concern experiments such as the ones connected to cultivation. In recent years, several experiments have been carried out in the mini-greenhouse set up on the International Space Station. In this case, the samples are from a dwarf tomato species grown and collected together with samples from the greenhouse.
Other products of experiments to be analyzed in-depth on Earth include experiments such as the Japanese space agency JAXA’s Hicari. This is a test of a method for producing higher-quality crystals in the Japanese Experiment Module-Gradient Heating Furnace (JEM-GHF). The purpose of producing silicon-germanium crystals is to obtain more efficient solar cells and semiconductors for electronic devices.
The next resupply mission for the Dragon space freighter could begin already in June 2023 but that’s a tentative schedule. The new version of this spacecraft is passing all the tests regarding its reuse and this one ended its third mission.
