Crew Opens Dragon for Business

Samantha Cristoforetti
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti takes a peek inside the just opened Dragon commercial cargo craft. Credit: NASA TV

The hatches to Dragon were opened for business Tuesday morning at 3:23 a.m. EST and the crew began unpacking critical gear that will support 256 science experiments. The SpaceX commercial cargo craft was attached Monday to the Harmony module at 8:54 a.m.

› Read more about the arrival of the SpaceX CRS-5 mission

One experiment that was immediately set up by Flight Engineer Terry Virts was the Micro-5 study. That experiment observes microorganisms as a model for humans so scientists can understand changes in a crew member’s immune system and the risk of infectious disease in space.

› Read more about Micro-5

5 thoughts on “Crew Opens Dragon for Business”

  1. I’m curious about the supplies and spare parts aboard these resupply missions. Are the cargo manifests posted? Many of the news updates mention supplies and spare parts as part of the cargo. Are the spare parts consumables, reparables, or some mix of both? Are the Dragon capsules being used to return failed reparables back to Earth for refurbishment and later reuse? If so, are there size and weight limits that impact what can be returned? Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *