Dragon has come dwelling.
SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule splashed down off the coast of Tampa, Florida on Wednesday (Jan. 11) at 5:19 a.m. EST (1019 GMT), wrapping up a six-week cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS).Â
That mission — generally known as CRS-26, as a result of it was the twenty sixth resupply flight that SpaceX flew to the orbiting lab for NASA — lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 26, 2022. The CRS-26 Dragon carried about 7,700 kilos (3,500 kilograms) of cargo to the ISS, together with two new power-augmenting solar arrays, which NASA astronauts put in throughout two spacewalks in December.
Associated: Facts about the International Space Station
Dragon departed the station on Monday afternoon (Jan. 11), heading again right down to Earth with about 4,400 kilos (2,000 kg) of provides and scientific investigations.
Amongst that gear is tools that astronauts used to develop vegetation in microgravity, {hardware} for a “bioprospecting” experiment (opens in new tab) that ran aboard the space station, and the Astrorad vest, which is designed to guard spaceflyers from dangerous radiation.Â
“Crew members wore the Astrorad vest whereas performing each day duties and supplied suggestions about how simple it’s to placed on, the way it suits and feels and the vary of movement attainable whereas carrying it,” NASA officers wrote in an update on Wednesday morning (opens in new tab). “The vest’s builders plan to make use of that suggestions to enhance design of the garment, which may present radiation safety for astronauts on Artemis missions to the moon.”
No different presently operational ISS cargo craft can carry gear safely right down to Earth like this. The opposite two energetic freighters — Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft and Russia’s Progress automobile — dissipate in Earth’s atmosphere when their time in orbit is finished.
There’s nonetheless one Dragon docked to the orbiting lab — the crew capsule Endurance, which carried four astronauts to the ISS on SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission for NASA in early October. Endurance and its 4 passengers are anticipated to return to Earth in March.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
