SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station last night, where it was neatly snagged by the station’s 17m robotic arm.
GIF made from footage from NASA
Here’s a clip of the capsule right after it was captured at the ISS by NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins:
.@SpaceX #Dragon captured at 6:56am ET/10:56am GMT w/@Astro_Jeff & #AstroKate at @CSA_ASC #Canadarm2 controls. https://t.co/PQ2DE0o7YM
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) July 20, 2016
Now that Dragon has arrived, the next step will be to dock it to the ISS so that the crew can get to the more than 2250kg of gear stashed in the capsule’s cargo hold. Highlights of that gear include the space station’s first DNA sequencer, which Rubins will use to attempt to sequence DNA in space for the first time — and also hopefully figure out what the weird, unidentified mould growing on the ISS walls could be.
Dragon also has something else unusual onboard: A new standardised docking adaptor to fit future commercial spacecraft from SpaceX, Boeing and perhaps additional companies shuttling astronauts to the station. The new adaptor is the first of two that will fitted to the ISS.