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SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship successfully docked with the International Space Station ISS today.
This is SpaceX’s fifth resupply mission towards the ISS and the craft is scheduled to remain attached with the ISS for the next four weeks.
The Dragon cargo spacecraft lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida early Saturday morning atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft then spent the entire weekend moving into Earth’s orbit and chasing after the ISS.
Canadarm 2 robotic arm was employed to grab the cargo craft and dock it to the Harmony module on the ISS.
The cargo ship carried 5,108 pounds of supplies including food, water, scientific experiments, equipment and clothing. It also carried tools that astronauts would need in order to complete spacewalks plus hardware for the Russian module and an IMAX camera.
While the dragon craft successfully launched and docked with the space station, but the entire process wasn’t as smooth as planned.
SpaceX wanted to reuse the booster rockets therefore they planned that the booster rockets employed during Saturday’s liftoff land upright on a barge floating in the ocean, but the trick didn’t work and the booster rocket landed hard and broke apart, yet the barge wasn’t damaged but some of the equipment on its deck might have to be replaced.
