A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule carrying more than 3 tons of supplies arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday morning (March 16).
The robotic Dragon, which launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday evening (March 14), reached the ISS Thursday at 7:31 a.m. EDT (1131 GMT), about 20 minutes ahead of schedule after a smooth and uneventful ride.
The current mission is called CRS-27, because it's the 27th robotic cargo flight to the International Space Station that SpaceX is conducting for NASA. ("CRS" stands for "commercial resupply services.")
Related: Facts about SpaceX's Dragon capsule
SpaceX holds another contract to fly astronauts to the orbiting lab for NASA and recently launched the sixth operational crewed mission under that deal. That four-person flight, known as Crew-6, arrived at the ISS on March 3.
Dragon delivered nearly 6,300 pounds (2,860 kilograms) of supplies on CRS-27. Among the cargo is vehicle hardware, spacewalk equipment, more than 60 different scientific experiments and some treats for the inhabitants of the orbiting lab.
"The crews requested some fresh fruit and refrigerated cheeses," Phil Dempsey, NASA's International Space Station Program transportation integration manager, said during a CRS-27 prelaunch press conference on Monday (March 13). "So on board are apples, blueberries, grapefruit, oranges [and] cherry tomatoes, as well as a few different cheeses."
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
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