The Dragon capsule has made it to the ISS, delivering the first space espresso machine, despite the failure of the falcon 9 landing.
Most of the talk over the recent SpaceX launch has been over the attempt at landing the Falcon 9 (CSR6) rocket in the middle of the ocean. This marks the third such attempt at making a landing on a floating platform in the middle of the ocean. They almost succeeded this time.
Elon Musk said that Falcon landed fine, but because of excess velocity, it tipped over once the stage rocket touched down. The GoPro footage from the explosion can be found here, and high-def footage of the incident can be found here. As you can see, the rocket made contact with the platform, but then tipped over, creating quite a magnificent explosion.
Beyond the failure of the landing of the CSR6 rocket, the much more important part of tuesday’s launch has come to fruition as the Dragon capsule has reached the International Space Station.
The Dragon capsule is carrying 4,400lb of supplies for the residing astronauts including food, science experiments, and spare parts for the ISS, and most notably, a espresso machine called ISSpresso. “The technology developed to provide espresso, and other hot beverages, in a microgravity environment could lead to new or improved brewing methods and techniques in Earth-based applications,” read a payload summary for the Dragon.
Italy provided the espresso maker for Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who has been stuck with instant coffee since her mission began in November. She almost missed the machine due to a 3 month delay due to a launch explosion last year.
This marks the seventh time the Dragon will be dropping by the ISS, and the sixth as part of a NASA resupply contract. For more detailed info, check out this article at space.com.
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