spacetoday.net: Dragon arrives at ISS

Posted: Thu, Oct 11, 2012, 8:09 AM ET (1209 GMT)
Dragon grappled by ISS on CRS-1 mission (NASA)

The crew of the International Space Station successfully berthed a Dragon cargo spacecraft to the station on Wednesday. The Dragon spacecraft, launched Sunday night on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, arrived at the vicinity of the ISS Wednesday morning and was grappled by the station's robotic arm at 6:56 am EDT (1056 GMT), about half an hour ahead of schedule. The arm then moved the the Dragon to a port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module, berthing it there a little over two hours after grappling. Although the Dragon's hatch was originally scheduled to be opened on Thursday, the station's crew opened the hatch Wednesday afternoon and went inside. The Dragon, flying on the first commercial cargo resupply mission, designated CRS-1, is carrying about 400 kilograms of experiments and other supplies for the station. It will remain attached to the station for 18 days before returning to Earth with about 760 kilograms of equipment, experiment results, and other items from the station.