Video footage from a camera on the International Space Station (ISS) has captured SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft docking to one of the station's ports with supplies.
Why It Matters
"Research conducted aboard the space station advances future space exploration—including Artemis missions to the Moon and astronaut missions Mars—and provides multiple benefits to humanity" NASA said.
What To Know
NASA said that at 7:05 a.m. EDT Monday, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft docked with the forward port of the ISS' Harmony module.
The vehicle delivered more than 5,000 pounds of "scientific investigations" and supplies as part of SpaceX's 33rd commercial resupply mission for NASA, according to the agency. The mission launched on Sunday, when a Falcon 9 rocket launched Dragon from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The footage was captured by the Sen SpaceTV-1 camera system mounted on the ISS.
The space streaming company Sen says its SpaceTV-1 mission launched to the ISS in 2024, and its public livestream began in December that year.
In a blog post, NASA said flight engineer Mike Fincke opened the hatch of SpaceX's Dragon capsule about 90 minutes after its docking, followed by crewmates Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Kimiya Yui. The team then unloaded time-sensitive research samples, transferring them into the station's freezers for preservation and analysis.
Among the experiments brought aboard was MVP Cell-07, a study of vascularized liver tissue constructs in microgravity.
According to NASA, MVP Cell-07 studies how bioprinted liver tissue with blood vessels grows in microgravity. The research could reveal how small vessels form in engineered tissue, potentially supporting astronaut health on missions and advancing tissue therapies for patients on Earth.
Later, the crew gathered to review plans for Dragon's scheduled September reboost of the station, when its Draco engines will test maintaining the outpost's orbit.
Earlier this month, Sen's SpaceTV-1 captured footage of Hurricane Erin as the system swirled above the Atlantic Ocean.
"SpaceTV-1 has three camera views—horizon, docking port and nadir," Sen founder and CEO Charles Black told Newsweek at the time.
"The horizon camera is a wide angle camera that is good for seeing storms such as Erin from space."
What People Are Saying
Sen founder and CEO Charles Black told Newsweek: "We hope the public enjoy these views of Earth, similar to views of the astronauts looking out of the window of the ISS. Our vision is for views like this to be accessible to everyone."
What Happens Next
A livestream of footage from SpaceTV-1 can be found here, as well as on its YouTube channel.