At 4:40 a.m. on Wednesday the first Costa Rican satellite reached its first stop: the International Space Station. In a month it will be placed in orbit and will exchange data with a remote station of Tecnológico de Costa Rica in the north of the country.
The Dragon capsule that was traveling in the rocket of the private company SpaceX made contact with the city in space also carrying supplies for the astronauts who are in that place. From the NASA control center, it was confirmed that the robotic arm of the station made the coupling without problems.
Along with the Costa Rican satellite, the Dragon capsule carried 2,600 kilos of food and equipment to carry out scientific experiments. One aimed at studying electrical storms and another to assess the development of drugs in space. It also carried a special cover to collect garbage in the space.
This is mission number 14 of a $1,600 million contract to supply the international space station. It is the second time that the company uses the Falcon 9 rocket and the same Dragon capsule to travel to space. They intend to lower the costs of space flights by reusing their rockets.