SpaceX launches Cargo Mission for NASA to ISS

SpaceX successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft on a cargo mission for NASA to International Space Station (ISS).

About Mission

  • This is SpaceX’s fifth launch of year. The launch was rescheduled earlier due to some electrical problem on ISS.
  • It was launched on a ‘Falcon 9’ rocket, from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is being used for first time.
  • Rocket on boards an un-crewed Cargo Dragon spacecraft.

The Dragon spacecraft

  • It is scheduled to reach ISS on May 6.
  • It carries 2,500 kilograms of research, supplies and hardware for astronauts living and working on ISS as part of the CRS-17 mission (17th resupply mission).
  • It will remain at ISS for about four weeks before coming back to Earth with more than 1,900 kg of research and return cargo.
  • It has flown before on other Missions namely, CRS-12 mission in August 2017

About The International Space Station (ISS)

  • It is basically an orbiting laboratory where its crew members conduct experiments in fields of biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology,etc.
  • It is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit (LEO).
  • Launched into orbit for first time in 1998, it is now largest human-made body in LEO.
  • Primary partners on project are USA’s NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), EU’s European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

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