Opening Dragon

The go ahead to open the hatch to the SpaceX Dragon was given and open it did. I watched this live, the protective eye-wear etc is just a little bit of extra safety not knowing what shook loose from the … Continue reading →

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The go ahead to open the hatch to the SpaceX Dragon was given and open it did. I watched this live, the protective eye-wear etc is just a little bit of extra safety not knowing what shook loose from the ride up.
Now they have to shuttle the 1,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS and they have to shuttle a little over 1,300 pounds of cargo back into the Dragon for return.
So what’s next? It is anticipated the Dragon will spend 18 days attached to the ISS after which it will be detached and the robotic arm will move it back out the the 10 meter release point and set it free. A series of thruster burns will move the Dragon away from the ISS.
After about four hours the Dragon will conduct a seven-minute de-orbit burn and it will re-enter the atmosphere and splash down in ...