WATCH: SpaceX ‘Dragon’ Approaches the International Space Station
SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship docked with the International Space Station yesterday, carrying with it over 3 tons of supplies and experiments.
According to CNBC, this is the first time that there have been 2 Dragon capsules docked with the ISS. SpaceX plans to have at least one Dragon capsule docked with the ISS at all times while utilizing another Dragon to shuttle astronauts and supplies back-and-forth from Earth.
This Dragon space capsule is quite advanced, as it docked itself to the ISS. The autonomous craft experienced an issue with communications with the ground crew (according to Space.com), but those issues were resolved and the capsule got the job done on its own.
To think that just a day prior, the capsule was sitting atop a Falcon 9 rocket in Florida. Less than 27 hours later, it's flying in space, attached to the ISS, at a speed 10 times faster than that of a bullet. Amazing!
Having been born on the Space Coast I was fortunate enough to witness several launches, including Apollo missions, Minuteman rockets, and even 2 shuttle launches. At over 50 years of age now, I still look into the sky at night like a 12-year-old, my eyes filled with wonder.