Cape Canaveral-a delivery of SpaceX full of Christmas presents from Earth arrived at the international space station on Saturday, after a slight delay caused by an interrupcio communication n. The Dragon capsule was stopped in the orbital laboratory three days after the launch from Cape Canaveral. Commander Alexander Gerst used large robotic arm of the space station to seize the cargo carrier, since the two ships rose 250 miles over the Pacific.
Photo: AP it took two attempts to get closer to the Dragon enough as to capture it. NASA canceled the first approach of the Dragon due to problems with the communications network serving the space station. The equipment failure in New Mexico for satellite tracking and data transmission of the NASA system resulted in a temporary loss of communication with the station. For safety, the Mission Control ordered the Dragon that you leading it back. A successful shot was two – only an hour and a half afternoon – after NASA changed to other TDRS satellite.
Photo: AP screwed Dragon holds everything that astronauts on the station needed for Christmas dinner, as well as mice and worms for scientific experiments, and more than 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) of equipment from the station. Holiday meal includes smoked Turkey, pan of candied sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and fruit cake. There are butter, with tubes of icing for decorating cookies. Three residents of the space station will be on board for Christmas; the other three will return to Earth on December 20. Until then, the station is home to two Americans, two Russians, one Canadian and Gerst, who is German. It is the second visit of the space station for this recycled Dragon; He was also there last year. Reinforcement of first stage used in the launch on Wednesday returned to port, after landing on the sea instead of Cape Canaveral. SpaceX towed the booster to the shore for a possible future re-use, as well as an investigation into what went wrong. SpaceX has been doing stations shipments for NASA from 2012. This is his 16th delivery under contract. Other two supply ships are connected to the space station: one Russian and another submitted by the other commercial carrier of NASA, Northrop Grumman.
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