Cargo Dragon docks with ISS
The spacecraft presently docked to ISS.
The unmanned Dragon capsule that SpaceX launched on May 15, 2026 successfully docked with ISS early this morning, bringing with it almost 6,500 pounds of cargo to the station.
In addition to cargo for the crew aboard the space station, Dragon will deliver several new experiments, including a project to determine how well Earth-based simulators mimic microgravity conditions, a bone scaffold made from wood that could produce new treatments for fragile bone conditions like osteoporosis, and equipment to help researchers evaluate how red blood cells and the spleen change in space. The Dragon spacecraft also will carry a new instrument to study charged particles around the Earth that can impact power grids and satellites, an investigation that could provide a fundamental understanding of how planets form, and a instrument designed to take highly accurate measurements of sunlight reflected by Earth and the Moon.
It also delivered a French-made spacesuit prototype to be tested by French astronaut Sophie Adenot to see if its design will allow her to get in and out of the suit in under two minutes. Based on what Adenot reports, engineers will use this prototype to develop “a new prototype” for further ground testing. (I wonder if this project is like most European space projects: After this second prototype is tested, they will build a third prototype, followed by a fourth and fifth, with the real article not actually going into operation for decades hence.)
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The spacecraft presently docked to ISS.
The unmanned Dragon capsule that SpaceX launched on May 15, 2026 successfully docked with ISS early this morning, bringing with it almost 6,500 pounds of cargo to the station.
In addition to cargo for the crew aboard the space station, Dragon will deliver several new experiments, including a project to determine how well Earth-based simulators mimic microgravity conditions, a bone scaffold made from wood that could produce new treatments for fragile bone conditions like osteoporosis, and equipment to help researchers evaluate how red blood cells and the spleen change in space. The Dragon spacecraft also will carry a new instrument to study charged particles around the Earth that can impact power grids and satellites, an investigation that could provide a fundamental understanding of how planets form, and a instrument designed to take highly accurate measurements of sunlight reflected by Earth and the Moon.
It also delivered a French-made spacesuit prototype to be tested by French astronaut Sophie Adenot to see if its design will allow her to get in and out of the suit in under two minutes. Based on what Adenot reports, engineers will use this prototype to develop “a new prototype” for further ground testing. (I wonder if this project is like most European space projects: After this second prototype is tested, they will build a third prototype, followed by a fourth and fifth, with the real article not actually going into operation for decades hence.)
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Robert Zimmerman,
I would share your skepticism anent the French spacesuit if it was strictly a matter of it being a space endeavor. But it’s also an exercise in clothing design and that is something at which the French have been world-class for decades. We’ll have to see which part of their history dominates here.