Following a successful launch on 22 May, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft spent two days chasing the International Space Station and on 25 May was ready to attempt getting into position for capture by the stations robotic arm. The capsule conducted tests of its positioning laser to cautiously approach the station until it was at a distance of 10 metres. Once there astronuat Don Pettit manoeuvered the robotic arm to capture the craft at 1356 GMT. Once captured the robotic arm moved the spacecraft to dock with the Earth facing port of the Harmony module of the station. Docking took place at 1602 GMT. The craft will be opened up on 26 May and the cargo unloaded. Once unloaded the craft will have the results of science experiments loaded into it and will undock on 31 May. Once undocked the Dragon capsule will return to Earth, re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean to be recovered.
Dragon docks with ISS
by Philip Hylands | May 25, 2012 | Seradata News | 0 comments
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