SPACEX COMMERCIAL CARGO VEHICLE AUTOMATICALLY DOCKS TO THE SPACE STATION
An unpiloted SpaceX Dragon (CRS-21) cargo craft automatically docked to the International Space Station Dec. 7, delivering almost three tons of scientific experiments, supplies and the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock to the orbital outpost. Following its launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, the Dragon automatically linked up to the space-facing docking port of the Harmony module for the first time, joining the Crew Dragon “Resilience” housed at the opposite port on the Earth-facing side of Harmony that arrived at the complex last month with four crewmembers. The Nanoracks airlock, which will be attached to the port side of the Tranquility module (Node 3), will be used as a platform from which payloads and small satellites can be deployed for research and utilization.