In reality, the International Space Station (ISS) moves around the Earth at about 25 times the speed of sound or about 10 times faster than a rifle bullet, so SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship docked autonomously to the space-facing side of the orbiting laboratory's Harmony module on Monday at 18:40 UTC. in a way that is difficult to imagine.
Fortunately, Space X has released images of the cargo Dragon's approach to an orbital complex moving rapidly around the Earth, as the ship approaches its docking position. You can see the video below.
Time-Lapse
Space X has released a video with spectacular images of the International Space Station taken from an approaching Dragon spacecraft that docked this week at the orbital complex. 28,000 km/h is a speed that is difficult to understand. We really can't even imagine that kind of speed. And it is not appreciated in the video, naturally.
So, when you see it, try to repeat that figure incessantly: 28,000 km/h.
Time-lapse of Dragon on approach – two Dragons now docked to the @space_station pic.twitter.com/I046jBmC7o
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 8, 2020
It is the first time that there are two Dragon ships docked at the Station: the other is a crew capsule.
The Dragon capsule It consists of a cone-shaped front cover, the traditional ballistic capsule and a non-pressurized charging module with two solar panels. The capsule uses a shield that protects the capsule during reentry even at speeds found in lunar or Martian missions.
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The news
Spectacular Time-lapse of Dragon approaching the International Space Station
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.