Cargo spaceship

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station to end its CRS-23 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-23 (Cargo Resupply Service 23) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida. The Dragon left the International Space Station a few hours earlier. For SpaceX, this was the third mission of the second contract with NASA to transport resupplies to the Station with the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, which splashes down near the East coast of the USA instead of the Pacific Ocean.

The launch of the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft (Photo courtesy CASC)

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Yesterday, the Chinese cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 3 reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module. It was launched about 6.5 hours earlier on a Long March-7 Y4 rocket from the Wenchang base. This is the second cargo spacecraft launched to the new Chinese space station and carries propellant along with supplies of various kinds for the taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, who will arrive in October.

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft starting its CRS-23 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its CRS-23 (Cargo Resupply Service 23) mission, also referred to as SPX-23. After almost exactly 12 minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 23rd mission, the 3rd for the Dragon 2 version, for the Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

The Cygnus S.S. Ellison Onizuka captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm (Image NASA TV)

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Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, launched last Tuesday, August 10, has just reached the International Space Station and was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Astronaut Megan McArthur, assisted by her colleague Thomas Pesquet, will soon begin the slow maneuver to move the Cygnus until it docks with the Station’s Unity module after about two hours.