The robotic Dragon ship will deliver 400kg of food, clothing, experiments and spares to the orbiting platform‘s six astronauts.
It is the maiden flight in a sequence of 12 missions that California’s SpaceX company is performing for NASA. The US space agency is looking to the private sector to assume routine transport duties to and from low-Earth orbit. It has given SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to keep the ISS stocked up with essentials, restoring a re-supply capability that the US lost when it retired the shuttles last year.
The terms of the contract kicked in following a successful test of Dragon‘s systems in May.
That demonstration saw the capsule berth with the ISS - the first commercially designed and built vehicle to do so - and then return safely to Earth.
NASA has a second company it hopes also can soon begin operational cargo deliveries to the station.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) will shortly test its new Antares rocket before undertaking its own ISS demonstration with a robotic vessel called Cygnus.
아주경제 앤드류 이 기자=
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com