Dragon cargo ship successfully docked to the ISS – Aviation EXplorer

April 11, AEX.RU – Dragon American ship docked with the International Space Station (ISS). This was reported by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA’s), reports TASS April 10.

“Dragon Corporation SpaceX docked to the ISS. It occurred at 09:57 (16:57 MSK)” – US space agency indicated. Dragon with a cargo of drinking water, food and scientific equipment docked to the Harmony connecting module. Thus, it took place almost next to the USS Cygnus ( “Cygnus”), which in late March was docked with residential connection Unity module.

“With the Dragon arrival set the record for the number of spacecraft, both are at the station – six, “- noted NASA. In addition to the two US vehicles to the ISS docked Russian “Soyuz TMA-15M”, “Soyuz TMA-14M”, “Progress M-25M” and a European ATV5.

docking procedure was generally without problems and long delays . Being late against the schedule was a little more than ten minutes. The operation was carried American astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Flight Engineer British Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency (ESA). “At a time when the ISS flew over the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii, Timothy peak of ESA with the support of Jeffrey Williams of NASA successfully conducted the Dragon capture using Canadarm2 manipulator arms (” Canadarm “) It happened at 07:23 (. 14: 23 MSK) “, – informed the US space agency

On board the ship, including the materials are to carry out 250 science experiments and commercial inflatable module BEAM company Bigelow Aerospace.. BEAM is a hollow chamber with a volume of 3.6 cubic meters, which is inflated with air injection in 4.5 times up to 16 cubic meters.

This module is designed for living and working of the future space station crews. And its compact design solution due to the need to deliver more than the necessary things to the ISS during one flight.

NASA plans to remove BEAM from the cargo compartment of the ship in five days. Then it will be attached to the gateway of a residential unit the Tranquility, cheat and use in an experimental mode for two years.

Members of the crew have to visit it several times to determine how reliable the outer shell of the inflatable compartment protects against radiation and space “garbage”.

Dragon also brought to the ISS nanosensors designed to “measure the composition of the air inside the station at the molecular level, and for the introduction of drugs into certain points of the body.” As explained by NASA, the laws of fluid motion on a microscopic capillaries are not fully known. The best way to deepen knowledge in the field in conditions of weightlessness, so the station is not only ideal, but also the only place for such research.