SpaceX Dragon Delivers Inflatable Room Prototype to International Space Station

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship has successfully docked at the International Space Station delivering vital supplies, scientific experiments and an inflatable room prototype.

Launched on Friday (8 April), the unmanned spacecraft finally reached the ISS on Sunday (10 April) where it was captured by British astronaut Tim Peake using the orbiting laboratory’s robotic arm.

“Looks like we caught a dragon”, Peake radioed to mission control after bagging the supply ship.

Part of the Dragon’s cargo was an inflatable space habitat - called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM).

A mock-up showing what the BEAM will look like once inflated (Bigelow Aerospace)

Astronauts on the ISS will investigate how well the pop-up space room copes with hazards such as radiation and space debris.

If tests are successful, larger inflatable space habitats could be used in future.

There are currently six spacecraft docked at the ISS, including a Cygnus cargo ship, two Russian Progress resupply ships and the two Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

This record has only been matched once before when space shuttle Discovery docked with the space station during its final mission in 2011.

After launching the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 made a successful landing on a drone ship at sea.

The Falcon 9 rocket shortly after it safely landed on the floating drone ship after launching the Dragon capsule into orbit (Spacex/Planet Pix via ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

This is the first time that Elon Musk’s private space company has managed to complete a landing at sea, following four failed attempts.

The ability to land and reuse rockets could cut the considerable cost of launching spacecraft into orbit.

Image credit: Tim Peake/ESA