In reality, the International Space Station (ISS) is moving 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 side looking out into space from the orbiting laboratory’s Harmony module on Monday at 18:40 UTC. in a way difficult to imagine.
Fortunately, Space X has released images of the cargo Dragon’s approach to an orbital complex moving vertiginously around the Earth, as the spacecraft approaches its docking station . 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 in the orbital complex. 28,000 km / h is a speed is difficult to understand. We can’t really even imagine that kind of speed . And in the video it is not appreciated, of course.
So, when you see it, try to repeat that number endlessly: 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 have been two Dragon ships docked to the Station: the other is a crew capsule .
The Dragon capsule consists of a cone-shaped front cap, 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 encountered on lunar or Martian missions.