9.6K Following its ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Friday, the company’s CRS-20 Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Monday. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida occurred at 11:50 pm Eastern time (04:50 UTC), prior to berthing at the ISS early on Monday. This launch began the month-long CRS-20 mission, which will see the Dragon spacecraft deliver more than 4,300 pounds (1,950 kilograms) of supplies and science to the space station before returning to Earth with the results of multiple scientific experiments conducted, along with some surplus hardware. The CRS-20 mission is being flown as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, which uses commercially-built vehicles to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX was awarded a contract for twelve initial CRS missions in 2008, with a later extension increasing the number of flights to twenty. The first iteration of SpaceX’s Dragon has successfully flown twenty missions to the ISS to date: a demonstration flight under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, and nineteen operational CRS flights. The CRS-7 mission, which launched in June 2015, failed to reach the station after its Falcon 9 launcher disintegrated on ascent. CRS-20 is the last flight of the first-generation Dragon spacecraft, with the cargo version of the upgraded Dragon 2 spacecraft expected to take over services next year as part of Phase 2 of the CRS program, also known as CRS2. Artistic render of Dragon 2 approaching the ISS for docking – credit: Nathan Koga for NSF/L2 New contracts for the CRS2 program were announced in 2016, with SpaceX’s Dragon and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft selected to continue delivering cargo to the station. Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spaceplane was added to the program to provide additional services. The first version of Dragon is equipped to carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the International Space Station – the former within the recoverable capsule and the latter being housed in the spacecraft’s aft trunk section. Dragon provides a unique capability to return cargo and hardware to Earth, whereas all other uncrewed cargo delivery spacecraft currently servicing the station are not built to withstand reentry. Only the pressurized capsule is recovered during CRS missions (Dragon’s trunk will be destroyed when it reenters Earth’s atmosphere at mission end). The Dragon capsule was also designed to be reusable, and can be reused for up to three missions. CRS-20 will mark the third flight for spacecraft C112, which flew to the International Space Station in February 2017 and December 2018 as part of the CRS-10 and CRS-16 missions. Dragon C112 approaches the ISS during the CRS-10 mission – credit: NASA This mission also marks the fastest turnaround time for a Dragon capsule since its last flight, with only 14 months between C112’s second splashdown in January 2019 and its third launch. In total, the CRS-20 Dragon vehicle carries 4,358 pounds (1,977 kilograms) to the International Space Station, with 3,326 pounds (1,509 kilograms) being transported in the pressurized capsule. This includes 602 pounds (273 kilograms) of crew supplies, 123 pounds (53 kilograms) of equipment required to support future spacewalks, 483 pounds (219 kilograms) of vehicle hardware, a single kilogram of computer equipment, and 2,116 pounds (960 kilograms) of scientific experiments. Dragon’s unpressurized trunk contains the Bartolomeo research platform, which was developed by Airbus Defense and Space and will be operated with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA). Bartolomeo will be mounted on the forward-facing side of the European Columbus module, and will offer thirteen payload sites – twelve being active and one remaining passive – to host external commercial scientific payloads and experiments. About to be launch on March, 6th, with @NASA's CRS-20 mission, #Bartolomeo will provide exceptional information about the Earth. 🌏 Stay tuned to follow the launch in the Dragon #ISS cargo supply vehicle. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/qM3st8JNUC