A loose cable was found outside the US cargo ship Dragon, according to media reports. It was spotted during the spacecraft's approach to the International Space Station. Experts say that the cable should not interfere with the successful capture of Dragon using a special manipulator.
The Dragon spacecraft was successfully launched into orbit on May 4, and today it is scheduled to dock with the ISS. You can watch the process of approaching the cargo ship, which carries cargo for the ISS crew, on the website of the American space agency NASA.
Information about the dangling cable was brought to the attention of the astronauts by specialists from the Mission Control Center in Houston. In turn, the astronauts also confirmed that they see the cable. Although the cable is unlikely to interfere with the manipulator's capture of Dragon, astronauts were advised to command the cargo ship to move away from the station if the cable became caught in the manipulator's grip. MCC specialists also reported that the cable was not separated from the Dragon body even during the launch of the Falcon-9 heavy launch vehicle.
Let us remind you that currently on the International Space Station are Russians Oleg Kononenko and Alexey Ovchinin, American astronauts Nick Hague, Anne McClain, Christina Cook and Canadian David Saint-Jacques. After the docking, the number of ships on the ISS will increase to six. At the moment, an American Cygnus truck is already βparkedβ there, as well as two Russian Progress cargo ships and two Soyuz manned spacecraft. According to the established plan, Dragon will spend about a month in space and then return to Earth with a cargo of materials obtained as a result of a series of experiments.
Source: 3dnews.ru