A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft has returned from Earth from the International Space Station and splashed off the coast of Florida on Wednesday (January 13).
The Dragon CRS-21 mission, SpaceX’s 21st space station cargo delivery for NASA, was launched on 6 December 2020 with £ 6,400. (2,903 kilograms) supplies and scientific equipment for the seven staff members of Expedition 64. After a one-day delay due to bad weather in the ejection zone, the upgraded vehicle unlocked autonomously from the space station for the first time on Tuesday (January 12). , and it splashed off about 35 hours later, at 20:26 EST on Wednesday, January 13 (0126 January 14 GMT) west of Tampa.
While previous dragon cargo missions ended with parachute-backed splashes in the Pacific Ocean, the newly upgraded version of SpaceX’s cargo spacecraft was designed to land in the Atlantic Ocean, closer to the science processing center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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The CRS-21 mission was not only the first to land near Florida, it was also the first to dock autonomously on and off the International Space Station. Previous Cargo Dragons rely on astronauts operating the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to seize the spacecraft and land with the orbital laboratory.
Other space cargo delivery vehicles, such as Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft and Japan’s H-II transfer vehicle, are intentionally destroyed at the end of their missions; space station astronauts fill the capsules with trash, then use Canadarm2 to send it to earth, and they burn safely into the atmosphere. However, SpaceX’s Dragon is a reusable spacecraft designed to deliver scientific experiments safely back to Earth from the space station. The Dragon CRS-21 mission returned with more than 4,400 pounds. (2,000 kg) “valuable scientific experiments and other cargo”, NASA officials said in a statement.
“The upgraded Dragon capsule used for this mission contains the dual availability of previous capsules with a powered cabinet, allowing a significant increase in research that can be returned to scientists,” NASA added. “Some scientists will return their research quickly, four to nine hours after it is splashed.”
Some of the scientific cargoes on board contain engineered heart tissue, organoids grown from human stem cells, biofilms that can rust stainless steel, zero-g optical fiber and more.
SpaceX plans to launch its next Dragon cargo mission, CRS-22, in May this year. The company’s Crew Dragon capsule is currently moored in the space station and is expected to return to Earth in May with its four-person crew. The next dragon launch is another Crew Dragon, which will launch the Crew-2 mission along with four other astronauts in March.
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