New Delhi: The SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft is carrying holiday treats and Christmas gifts along with science experiments, crew supplies and other cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft went into space on Tuesday, December 21 at 5:07 a.m. EST (3:37 a.m. IST).
As part of SpaceX’s 24th Cargo Resupply Mission, cargo was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
NASA said on its website that the spacecraft will dock at the ISS on December 22 and will remain there for a month.
Expedition 66 crew members — NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Mark Vande Hei, ESA astronauts Mathias Maurer, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov — will celebrate Christmas in the orbital laboratory this year.
It will be the first Christmas for all crew members except Vande Hei, Shkaplerov and Marshburn.
NASA tweeted about the cargo supply mission on Tuesday. The US space agency noted that this was a special delivery, and that the Dragon spacecraft was carrying food and supplies to the space station. In this episode, a Twitter user asked NASA whether the spacecraft was giving a Christmas present.
NASA responded in the affirmative. The space station’s crew will receive gifts and a holiday meal delivery, the space agency wrote. It said the crew added roast turkey, pickled green beans, smoked seafood and fruit cakes to the menu.
this is! @space Station The crew will receive gifts and a holiday meal delivery. On the menu they have roasted turkey, pickled green beans, smoked seafood and fruit cakes.
— NASA (@NASA) December 21, 2021
NASA’s space station program manager, Joel Montalbano, said during a news briefing before the resupply launch that the space agency was sending food and gifts for the crew, reports Space.com.
Other interesting items being sent to the space station include a Tide detergent developed by Procter & Gamble (P&G) and a skin bioprinter. The detergent, called Tide Infinity, is a fully degradable detergent specifically designed for use in space. NASA said on its website that Tide, once perfected in space, plans to use new cleaning methods and detergents to advance sustainable, low-resource-use laundry solutions on Earth. Is.
The Bioprint FirstAid is a portable handheld bioprinter developed by the German Aerospace Center that will use a patient’s own skin cells to create a tissue-forming patch to cover the wound and speed up the healing process. This will be beneficial during future missions to the Moon and Mars.
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