The latest SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft has delivered a new airlock, new scientific experiments and other cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
Launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:17 EST (16:17 GMT) on Sunday 6 December from Nasa’s Kennedy space centre in Florida, the capsule docked with the ISS a day later. It is scheduled to remain at the space station for about a month.
The new airlock has been supplied by Texas-based Nanoracks LLC, in a public-private partnership with Nasa. The airlock will be located on the US Node 3 module, also called Tranquility.
It will allow larger payloads to be moved in and out of the station, and make it easier for the astronauts to deploy small satellites.
The capsule is also carrying almost 3 tonnes of scientific experiment and will itself be used as additional lab space during its attachment to the ISS.
The experiments include one from the European Space Agency called BioAsteroid that will study the behaviour of microbes on rocks in microgravity.
Microbes could break down rocks into soils for plant growth or extract elements useful for life support systems and the production of medicines.
