SpaceX Dragon capsule arrives at space station for Easter Sunday delivery

The unmanned Dragon capsule from the private US firm SpaceX successfully reached the International Space Station Sunday, its third trip carrying supplies and equipment to the orbiting lab.

NASA television broadcast live images of the ISS’s 17.6 meter (57.7 foot) long robotic arm as it grabbed hold of the gumdrop-shaped capsule on schedule at 11:14 GMT.

“Capture complete, congratulations to the entire team,” said the Japanese station commander, Koichi Wakata, who was in charge of operating the mechanical arm along with American Rick Mastracchio.

There’s no rush to unpack however – the Dragon is due to spend the next four weeks attached to the ISS as its 150 science experiments are unloaded and set up around the station. The capsule will then be reloaded with completed experiments, garbage, and defunct hardware before being sent back down the gravity well.

It’s good news for SpaceX, which is now a quarter of the way through its 12-mission ISS resupply contract with NASA. The contract is worth $1.6bn to the company, but almost as important is the credibility SpaceX will get as a reliable orbital delivery firm.

In another piece of good news, SpaceX is also reporting that it managed to safely test-land its Falcon 9 booster after it had punched the Dragon through Earth’s lower atmosphere. After the capsule separated, the booster deployed landing legs and began a controlled descent to the Atlantic Ocean for retrieval.

According to SpaceX the rocket was successfully brought down to sea level using residual fuel left in its tanks and hovered over the ocean before shutting down its engines. A retrieval ship was supposed to be on station to pick it up, but bad weather kept it in port. Several craft are now en route to see if the booster can be retrieved.

SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk had been cautiously optimistic about the planned soft landing for the booster, but only gave the mission a 40 per cent chance of success. If the flight telemetry is correct, the next mission could see an attempt to land the hardware on terra firma.

Agencies/Canadajournal