The cargo ship parked on the Earth-facing side of the space station’s Harmony module, four days after lifting off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida.
The @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was installed at 7:47am ET to the @Space_Station, on the Earth-facing side of the station's Harmony module. The crew will soon begin unpacking over 5,700 pounds of science and supplies inside. What's on board: https://t.co/2Th9mnh5gM pic.twitter.com/aNQ8Ea3hpB
— NASA (@NASA) December 8, 2019
The scientific supplies include malting barley, which will allow astronauts to grow food in space, a study of how fire spreads in zero gravity and a batch of mice to research ways of preventing bone and muscle loss without the pull of Earth’s gravity.
On 4 December, the launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the ISS was delayed due to adverse weather conditions. It was launched from Cape Canaveral a day later — on Thursday, 5 December.
Since the shuttle’s demise, NASA has sent astronauts to and from the station by purchasing seats on Russia’s Soyuz system.
In March, SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spacecraft made its first test unmanned flight to the ISS. It is expected that the Crew Dragon and Starliner would perform test manned flights in the first half of 2020, after which they will be certified by NASA for full-time missions on the ISS.
