Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 June 2
The Space Station Captures a Dragon Capsule
Image Credit:
Steve Swanson,
Expedition 39 Crew,
NASA
Explanation:
The space station has caught a dragon.
Specifically, in mid-April, the
International Space Station captured the unmanned
SpaceX
Dragon capsule
sent to resupply the orbiting outpost.
Pictured above, the station's
Canadarm2 had just grabbed the commercial spaceship.
The
Dragon capsule
was filled with over 5000 lbs (2260 kilos) of supplies and experiments
to be used by the current band of six ISS astronauts who compose
Expedition 39, as well as the six astronauts who compose Expedition 40.
After docking with the ISS, the Dragon capsule was unloaded and
eventually released,
splashing down in the
Pacific Ocean on May 18.
The current
Expedition 40 crew, now complete, will apply themselves to many tasks including the deployment of the
Napor-mini RSA experiment which will use
phased array radar
and a small optical telescope to monitor possible
emergency situations on the Earth below.
Tomorrow's picture: oversized pinwheel of death
<
|
Archive
|
Index
|
Search
|
Calendar
|
RSS
|
Education
|
About APOD
|
Discuss
|
>
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(
MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
Specific rights apply.
NASA Web
Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of:
ASD at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered