SpaceX’s first-ever recycled spaceship arrived Monday at the International Space Station, two days after the unmanned Dragon cargo capsule launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Live images on NASA television showed the spaceship approaching the orbiting outpost, then being grabbed with the station’s robotic arm at 9:52 am (1352 GMT).
‘Capture complete,’ said NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who operated the robotic arm from inside the station.
The mission to the Earth-orbiting laboratory will be the eleventh commercial resupply services flight for SpaceX. The payload will include important materials to support more than 250 science and research investigations taking place during Expeditions 52 and 53. When the Dragon arrives at the space station, U.S. astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer will grapple Dragon using the station’s 57-foot-long robotic arm. Ground commands then will be sent from mission control for the station’s arm to rotate and install the Dragon capsule to the station’s Harmony module.
The spaceship is carrying almost 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of science research, crew supplies and hardware.
It was originally flown on SpaceX’s fourth resupply mission in 2014.
Its arrival makes it the first US spaceship to return to the space station since the American space shuttle program ended in 2011.
The latest mission is SpaceX’s 11th cargo resupply trip to the ISS under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.
‘We also want to note the special significance of SpaceX 11, which if we followed the naming convention of the artist Prince, could be called ‘The SpaceX formerly known as SpaceX 4,” quipped NASA astronaut Jack Fischer as he spoke to mission control in Houston.
‘We have a new generation of vehicles now, led by commercial partners like SpaceX, as they build the infrastructure that will carry us into the future of exploration,’ he said.
‘Now we’d better get back to work. We have a lot of stuff to unload.’
SpaceX is working on a version of its Dragon capsule that will carry crew to the space station, perhaps as early as next year.
The California-based company headed by Elon Musk also regularly returns the first stage of its Falcon 9 rockets to upright landings on Earth, as part of an effort to increase reusability and lower the cost of spaceflight.
The launch, which followed a two-day delay as a result of thunderstorms, marked the fifth successful landing of the company’s rockets following last year’s explosion at the Cape Canaveral launchpad.
The Dragon capsule sent to the space station on Saturday had previously made a delivery to the ISS roughly three years ago.
In September 2014, and it delivered nearly 2.5 tons of cargo to the orbiting laboratory.
The Dragon returned to Earth about a month later, splashing down into the ocean.
SpaceX refurbished it for the planned launch, providing a new heat shield and fresh parachutes for re-entry at mission’s end.
There were so many X-rays and inspections that savings, if any, were minimal this time, said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of flight reliability for SpaceX.
The vast majority of this Dragon has already been to space, including the hull, thrusters and tanks.
It comes just months after SpaceX sent a previously flown rocket to orbit in a major milestone for more affordable spaceflight.
‘This whole notion of reuse is something that’s very, very important to the entire space industry,’ NASA’s space station program manager Kirk Shireman said at a news conference Wednesday.
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