SpaceX Dragon docks with ISS, delivering new cargo
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 15, delivering more than 6,300 pounds (2,858 kilograms) of food, supplies and scientific equipment for the Expedition 75 crew, Qazinform News Agency reports, citing NASA.
The spacecraft docked at 10:27 a.m. EDT with the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. The mission marks SpaceX’s 35th commercial resupply mission to the ISS for NASA.
The cargo includes the final set of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs), scheduled for installation later this fall. It also carries equipment for experiments aimed at advancing medical research and materials science.
Researchers will work on manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity to help restore vision, developing 3D heart tissue models for large-scale drug testing, and studying how a new type of glass forms in space. The mission also carries brain organoids that could help identify targets for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the station until mid-November before returning to Earth with time-critical research and cargo. It is expected to splash down off the coast of California.
The mission launched on Oct. 13 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Saudi Arabia had sent the first biological samples from the Middle East into space aboard the same SpaceX CRS-35 mission as part of research into neurodegenerative diseases.