A SpaceX cargo ship is scheduled to reach on the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning (Aug. 25), and you may watch the rendezvous dwell.
A robotic Dragon capsule is anticipated to dock with the station on Monday round 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT), ending a roughly 29-hour orbital chase.
You can watch the motion dwell right here at Space.com courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency. Coverage will start at 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT) on Monday.
This Dragon is flying SpaceX’s thirty third mission for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program. The flight, often called CRS-33, started with a launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket early Sunday morning (Aug. 24).
The capsule is carrying about 5,000 kilos (2,270 kilograms) of meals, provides and scientific experiments to the astronauts on board the orbiting lab.
”Commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station deliver science that helps prove technologies for Artemis lunar missions and beyond,” acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said in a postlaunch statement.
“This flight will test 3D printing metal parts and bioprinting tissue in microgravity — technology that could give astronauts tools and medical support on future moon and Mars missions,” he added.
The CRS-33 Dragon’s work will not be executed after docking. The capsule may even assist keep the ISS’ altitude by way of a sequence of engine burns — a vital step to counter the results of frictional drag that has been carried out primarily by Russian Progress cargo automobiles over time.
Russia is contemplating leaving the ISS consortium in 2028, two years sooner than the station’s deliberate finish of life. If that occurs, the remaining companions might want to depend on different station-boosting means, corresponding to burns by Dragon and Cygnus, the robotic cargo ship constructed by Virginia-based firm Northrop Grumman. Both automobiles have already proven their capacity to do that job.
The CRS-33 mission will finish in December, when the Dragon — carrying samples and different scientific gear — returns to Earth with a splashdown off the coast of California.