Today at 8:56 AM EST (13:56 GMT), the Spacex Dragon CRS-2 mission berthed with the International Space Station (ISS). The unmanned cargo ship was captured using the station’s robotic arm at 5:31 AM EST (10:31 GMT) by ISS Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Tom Mashburn of NASA before being secured to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
The docking took place two days after the launch of the CRS-2 mission, when shortly after entering orbit the Dragon capsule suffered a malfunction in three of its four attitude control thruster pods. Though the fault was traced to a blockage or stuck valve in the oxidizer system and quickly rectified, it meant that the scheduled Saturday rendezvous with the ISS had to be postponed while checks were carried out.
The CRS-2 mission is the third visit by a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS and the second commercial cargo run. The reusable craft delivered about 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) of food and other items including 1,268 pounds (575 kg) of experiment supplies. It will remain berthed with the ISS until the capsule returns on March 25 carrying 2,668 pounds (1,210 kg) of science samples for a splashdown off the coast of Baja, California.
The NASA video below shows the Dragon CRS-2 mission being captured by the ISS crew.
