The robotic Dragon, which was launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday evening (March 14), reached the ISS on Thursday at 7:31 a.m. EDT (1131 GMT), about 20 minutes ahead of schedule after a smooth and uneventful ride.
The current mission is called CRS-27 because it is the 27th robotic cargo flight to the International Space Station that SpaceX is conducting for NASA. (“CRS” stands for “Commercial Resupply Services”).
Related: Facts about SpaceX’s Dragon capsule
SpaceX has another contract to fly astronauts to the orbiting laboratory for NASA and recently launched the sixth operational crew mission under that agreement. The four-person flight, known as Crew-6, arrived at the ISS on March 3.
Dragon delivered nearly 6,300 pounds (2,860 kg) of supplies on CRS-27. Among the cargo are the vehicle’s hardware, spacewalk equipment, more than 60 different science experiments and some goodies for the inhabitants of the orbiting laboratory.
“The crews requested some fresh fruit and chilled cheeses,” Phil Dempsey, NASA’s International Space Station Program transportation integration manager, said during a CRS-27 prelaunch press conference Monday (March 13). “So on board are apples, blueberries, grapefruit, oranges (and) cherry tomatoes, as well as a few different cheeses.”
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the hunt for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).