SpaceX Dragon Grappled to Canadarm2

On Sunday, April 20, 2014, the Expedition 39 crew aboard the International Space Station welcomed nearly two-and-a-half tons of supplies and scientific payloads to the station with the arrival of the third SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo spacecraft.

Credit: NASA

This image of SpaceX Dragon grappled by Canadarm2 was sent down by Flight Engineer Steve Swanson to Instagram with the message, "We have a Dragon. All is good."

With SpaceX Dragon securely in the grasp of Canadarm2 , the robotics officer at Mission Control remotely operated the arm to install the capsule to its port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony (ESA built Node 2) module.

Once SpaceX Dragon was in place, Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio monitored the Common Berthing Mechanism operations for first and second stage capture of the cargo ship, assuring that the vehicle was securely attached to the station with a hard mate.

Second stage capture was completed at 10:06 a.m. EDT as the station flew 260 miles above Brazil.

ISS Crew Grapples with SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft before Docking

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully berthed at the space station at 9:06 a.m. EDT. 

The mission is the company's third cargo delivery flight to the station.

ISS Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, with the assistance of NASA’s Rick Mastracchio, successfully captured the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with the station’s robotic arm at 7:14 a.m. EDT.

Operations to berth Dragon to the space station begin at approximately 9:30 a.m.

The mission is the company's third cargo delivery flight to the station.

Dragon's cargo will support more than 150 experiments to be conducted by the crews of ISS Expeditions 39 and 40.



The SpaceX-3 Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon rocket as it continues on to the International Space Staton.

Liftoff took place at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:25 p.m. EDT.

SpaceX Dragon Arrives at ISS: CanadArm2 grapple

SpaceX Dragon grappled by Canadarm2. 

Credit: NASA

SpaceX's unmanned cargo freighter Dragon arrived at the International Space Station this morning carrying supplies for the orbiting outpost.

The arrival had been delayed from yesterday after a temporary glitch with the vehicle's thrusters.

Dragon was captured by the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2 at 9.31 GMT. The robotic arm was operated by Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford with assistance from flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Chris Hadfield.

Commander Ford said: "As they say, it’s not where you start, but where you finish that counts, and you guys really finished this one on the mark. You’re aboard, and we’ve got lots of science on there to bring aboard to get done."

The final phase of the vehicle's arrival is for Mission Control to remotely operate the station's robotic arm to guide the capsule to its port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module.

The berthing mechanism will ensure the craft is properly attached and sealed to its port.