Miami,) .- The unmanned spaceX capsule, which aims to test the commercial space flights with people, has successfully coupled today to the International Space Station (ISS), confirmed NASA.
“Confirmed coupling!” After 18 orbits of the earth since its launch, the #CrewDragon spacecraft successfully linked to the @Space_Station via “soft coupling” at 5.51 (10.51 GMT) as the station was traveling just north of New Zealand, “explained NASA on his Twitter.
As planned, the Crew Dragon, which was launched yesterday from Cape Canaveral (Florida), reached the ISS with about 180 kilos of supplies inside for the astronauts who are on the space station.
“The SpaceX capsule has hooked up to the @Space_Station!”, NASA added in another tweet, in which he stressed that it is “the first time” that is achieved for a spacecraft built for commercial purposes and designed for a crew.
The Crew Dragon will remain attached to the space station for five days, until next Friday, when it will begin, at dawn, a return trip to Earth, where it is expected to descend in the Atlantic Ocean at around 8.45 am local time (13.45 GMT).
If everything goes according to plan, next April SpaceX will carry out a new flight test to test an emergency system and, months later, probably in July, will transport for the first time two astronauts from NASA to the space station, where they will stay two weeks.
The objective of the Demo Mission-1 (DM-1), which is an “unmanned test flight on board”, is to demonstrate the ability of SpaceX to travel “safely and reliably to and from the ISS”, as part of the commercial crew program of NASA, according to the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk.
“We are leading the space again,” said US Vice President Mike Pence, who congratulated NASA and SpaceX on the successful launch yesterday on his Twitter account.
The mission puts the US “one step closer to the launching of US astronauts into space, from US soil into US-made rockets.” (EFEUSA
