Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have finally received their Christmas gift, which is a payload of 4,800 pounds. Now, the space station is also awaiting the arrival of three new crew members, which is scheduled on Tuesday.
"It's a beautiful spacecraft and we're looking forward to digging into it and getting some science on board," stated NASA astronaut Joe Acaba. Acaba as his fellow crewmate astronaut Mark Vande Hei snagged the Dragon capsule using the robotic arms of the space station.
SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which was launched from the company's launch pad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force, is now parked at the ISS. In this mission, the company successfully reused a Falcon 9 rocket.
Dragon brought scientific apparatus, gears and other supplies for the crew members of ISS. The pieces of equipment include a new "wired one-square-meter shield", which will analyze the real-time damages of the space station caused by space junks. It would be mounted on the exterior of the space lab.
The cargo spacecraft also carried a planned experiment to the International Space Station, which would test the possibility of producing beer in deep space. As reported earlier, the famous beer company, Budweiser has sent a total of 20 barley seedlings to ISS to comprehend whether or not those seeds would grow in space at the same pace as the Earth.
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On the other hand, NASA crew members at the space station are going to receive another gift from Earth, which has not been sent to them via Dragon and that is a digital file of the recently released movie "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." It has been reported that Disney will upload the link to the movie for the astronauts aboard ISS through NASA's mission control at the Johnson Space Center at Houston, informed the space agency.
