Overview
- The CRS-34 Dragon, which docked Sunday to the station’s Harmony port, arrived about 36 hours after a Friday 6:05 p.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral.
- NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway confirmed the autonomous soft capture during approach, with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot monitoring from the Cupola.
- The capsule delivered nearly 6,500 pounds of cargo, including studies that test Earth-based microgravity simulators, a wood-based bone scaffold, red blood cell and spleen changes, charged-particle monitoring, and precision sunlight-reflectance measurements.
- The spacecraft, flying as vehicle C209 on its sixth mission, will remain attached until mid-June and then return time-sensitive samples to Earth with a Pacific Ocean splashdown.
- These routine Dragon runs cut costs and sustain a cycle of launch, lab work in microgravity, and sample return that supports the ISS and informs NASA’s plans for Artemis and future trips to the Moon and Mars.