Elon Musk Publishes Video of SpaceX Capsule Preparing for the ISS

The SpaceX Dragon Capsule has certainly had its fair share of journeys. It's been one of the key back-and-forth elements to carry science equipment from Earth to the ISS and back.

SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk recently posted video to Twitter showing just how beautiful those trips have been.

Forward hatch view of Dragon departing the @Space_Station earlier this month. pic.twitter.com/L1Kc5XI0G7

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 31, 2018

The video captures the capsule going away from the ISS back down to land earlier this August. The return mission from August 3rd saw the capsule crammed with over 3,800 lbs of supplies and research items. The video of the drop gives a stunning view of Earth as the capsule slips away. 

Originally, the Dragon launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida just before 5:45 a.m. on June 29. It carried with it nearly 6,000 lbs of cargo to be used in over 27 science experiments. 

It wasn't all science and research within the contents, however. The SpaceX capsule included "luxuries" like an iPad Air, Death Wish Coffee, and fresh crab meat. IBM even sent up a new type of AI robotic assistant called the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON for short). 

The Dragon landed in the Pacific Ocean just slightly southwest of Los Angeles a few days later. SpaceX also shared a picture of the Dragon capsule being hoisted out of the sea, as seen in the featured image.

 

Dragon returned home yesterday after its second month-long stay at the @ISS. It’s now headed to port for a cargo handover to @NASA.

A post shared by SpaceX (@spacex) on Aug 4, 2018 at 5:41pm PDT

Next up for those capsules will be humans. NASA and SpaceX are collaborating on the mission to replace the Russia Soyuz crafts with SpaceX Dragon capsules. And SpaceX isn't alone in that venture. Boeing's Starliner missions will also offer alternatives to the Russia Soyuz capsules.

[see-also]

Boeing and SpaceX are giving solutions to the expiring contract and having to work quickly; the Russian contract with transport to and from the ISS is set to expire in November 2019. Musk believes the first human missions could happen as early as April 2019.