SpaceX has successfully delivered 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds) of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission was the Calfornia-based launch providers 17th cargo mission to the station.

The Falcon 9 carrying the CRS-17 Dragon cargo spacecraft was launched at 06:48 UTC on May 4, 2019. Once deployed into orbit, the spacecraft began its three-day chase to rendezvous with the International Space Station. It rendezvoused with the ISS on May 6 and was captured by the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm and installed onto the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

The CRS-17 spacecraft joins five others including two Progress spacecraft, two Soyuz spacecraft and a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft launched late last month.

Aboard the CRS-17 spacecraft is 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds) of “research, equipment, cargo and supplies that will support dozens of investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory.” Included among the new research arriving at the station are NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, the Photobioreactor, and a technology which could predict the effectiveness of potential medicines called “tissue chips”. In addition to new research, the spacecraft also carried equipment and supplies for dozens of existing investigations.

Once the cargo has been removed from the Dragon spacecraft, it will be repacked with samples from concluded and ongoing experiments and anything no longer needed aboard the station. It will then undock, deorbit and splashdown in the Atlantic ready to be retrieved by recovery crews.





