Dragon ships successfully assembled with ISS

Dragon's first private spacecraft was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in a historic mission that was successfully connected to the station late May 25, according to Reuters.

According to the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), the connection was completed at 23:00 pm 25/5 (VN time), when both were on orbit with an altitude of about 402km above Australia.

Dragon ship approached the International Space Station (ISS) - (Photo: Reuters / NASA)

Accordingly, NASA astronaut Donald Pettit was in the station using a 17-meter-long Canadian robot arm to grab the ship as it approached and pulled it back to connect to the Harmony module. .

Earlier, the unmanned transport vessel Dragon was launched into space by Falcon 9 boosters from Cape Canaveral Air Base in Florida state (USA) on the morning of May 22, after many delays due to public incidents. Preparation and technical cooperation.

According to AFP, from May 26, the astronauts will transfer goods weighing about 544kg as the Dragon ships bring them to the station and return the waste, unused equipment . to the Dragon ship to bring to the left. land. After two weeks of traveling in space, the Dragon ship is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean, off California.

The robot arm of the station extends to grab the ship - (Photo: Reuters / NASA)

It is known that the reusable Dragon ship was developed by SpaceX, which owns the internet billionaire Elon Musk in an effort to fill the gap in the US space program, by helping the country restore flights. flying into space, firstly transporting goods to ISS, after the US space shuttle fleet expired last year.

After this historic mission, SpaceX will develop the Dragon ship to be a manned spacecraft to fly to ISS by 2015, in order to compete with Russia, which holds a monopoly in taking people to space by ship. Soyuz. Currently each seat on the Soyuz ship that NASA has to pay for Russia is 63 million USD.

The successful connection with the Dragon's ISS has opened a new era in
explore the universe with the participation of private organizations - (Photo: Reuters / NASA)

With the development of the Dragon ship, SpaceX received $ 381 million from NASA, part of a multi-year $ 1.6 billion contract to develop a spacecraft to bring people and goods to ISS. and return.