A load of supplies has been launched by SpaceX on Saturday to the International Space Station after it suffered from a pair of unusual power delays, and when it arrives, a Canadian astronaut will be waiting to snatch it.
On Saturday a Falcon rocket raced into the pre-dawn darkness which is also the carrier of the 2,500 kilograms of goods, the Dragon capsule. Dragon which is making its second flight to space is a recycled spacecraft, and its arrival is due at the orbiting lab early Monday.
That is when David Saint-Jacques, a Canadian astronaut, will begin his mission to man the Canadarm 2 that will perform a “cosmic catch” maneuver for the first time ever, being backed up by NASA astronaut Nick Hague.
“We’re ready to capture with #Canadarm2 on Monday!,” Saint-Jacques tweeted.
Experiments and equipment are being carried by this latest cargo Dragon (marking the 17th shipment of the company) for the six space station astronauts including an instrument that can monitor the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the Earth.
In addition to that, as part of the Tomatosphere educational project, the Dragon capsule is carrying .2 million tomato seeds heading to space.
The seeds will only stay there for a month, according to what the Canadian Space Agency said in a release, along with breath and blood samples for a Canadian health probe that wants to see what impact living in space has on the bone marrow of astronauts.
Since 2012 the station has been restocked by SpaceX.
The launch that took place on Saturday went smoothly, and the landing should also be smooth taking place on a recovery ship just offshore.
Due to the fact that there were some electrical power shortages because of which the space station was cropped up first, the delivery was delayed for a few days.
