What is SpaceX’s 2,900 kg cargo ship carrying to Int’l Space Station?

Team Udayavani, Dec 8, 2020, 11:26 AM IST

SpaceX’s successfully launched Dragon capsule is carrying 6,400 pound (about 2,900 kg) supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), including 4,400 pound of research (1,995 kg).

It’s carrying 40 mice that’ll be used to study the impact that living on ISS can have on astronauts’ bones and eyes. It’s also carrying a festive meal of roast turkey and shortbread biscuits.

It can also take a 20 per cent more volume of cargo than the previous supply ships of SpaceX. It can be reused up to five times, which is also an improvement over the three-flight use of the first-generation of Dragon capsules. Also, it can stay at the space station for 75 days, according to SpaceX.

The first-stage booster, that was making its fourth such flight, landed on a platform in the ocean after the launch. The new Dragon capsule can dock with the space station automatically after its planned 26-hours long journey, unlike the past Dragon crafts that had to be captured by astronauts with the help of a robot arm.

Dragon-2 will stay at the space station for about a month when it would undock with previous equipment and fall into the Atlantic Ocean.