SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday with a cargo of supplies, including freeze-dried meals, 20 live lab mice and a 3D printer.
Astronauts at the orbiting lab reached out with the space station’s robotic arm to grasp the Dragon at 6:52 am (local time), NASA said.Germany’s Alexander Gerst, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, operated the 57.7-foot (17.6-meter) robotic arm to capture the Dragon. He was assisted by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman. The berthing operation will be complete when the vessel latches fully onto the research outpost, about two hours after the capture.
The Dragon capsule is carrying more than 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies and material for science experiments, including a tool to measure wind speed at the ocean’s surface.The spacecraft launched early Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is SpaceX’s fourth contracted mission with NASA for supply trips to the ISS and back.
The lab mice are the first live mammals to hitch a ride aboard a commercial cargo ship, and they are enclosed in a NASA-made research cage for studying the effects of weightlessness on their bodies.The 3D printer is the first of its kind to demonstrate how the technology can be used in space, even without gravity to assist the process.