On board it will be, in particular, the results of research and failed instruments from the station
NEW YORK, January 10. /tass/. The undocking of the Dragon cargo ship of the American company SpaceX from the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for January 21. This was announced on Monday on its website by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
"The undocking is scheduled for 10:40 on the time of the East Coast of the United States (18:40 Moscow time)," the agency noted. Dragon lands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida a month after being in orbit. On board will be, in particular, the results of research and failed instruments from the station.
SpaceX intends to use each of its "trucks" for flights to the ISS up to five times. The ship now docked to the station has already been in space in June.
Dragon was launched on December 21 from the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome (Florida) using a Falcon 9 launch vehicle as part of SpaceX's 24th commercial resupply mission to the ISS. Docked on December 22. The ship delivered about three tons of various cargoes - food, materials for scientific experiments, equipment.
Including a portable 3D bioprinter designed to reproduce complex structures, such as skin or blood vessels, using biomaterials including living cells. It is supposed to work out a technology that in the future can be used to recreate, for example, the skin directly on burn or other wounds. Dragon also brought Tide washing powder to the ISS, the manufacturers of which want to understand how effective it will be in zero gravity.
Cargo to the station, in addition to SpaceX, is delivered under contract with NASA by Cygnus ships of Northrop Grumman Corporation. But when Cygnus returns to Earth, they burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere along with the garbage that they take from the ISS. Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, Americans Mark Vande Hai, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, as well as German Matthias Maurer are currently on watch in orbit.
