Third supply spacecraft to arrive in three weeks

Dragon on the launchpad.

Three of five spacecraft docked to Space Station. Credits: ESA/NASA

This Sunday Tim Peake will grapple the Dragon supply spacecraft and berth it with the International Space Station. This time he will be ‘M1’ in control of the 16-m Canadarm.

After Cygnus and Progress this is the third spacecraft to arrive in just three weeks time, and another weekend arrival. This will be the first time that Cygnus and Dragon are both docked to the Space Station at the same time, and the busiest it has ever been on Station with six spacecraft docked at the same time. One notable item the latest arrival brings is the Spheroid experiment.

As usual watch the launch and docking live via NASA television below. Schedule times in GMT:

• 20:30 8 April Coverage of the Launch of the SpaceX/Dragon-CRS-8 Mission to the Space Station. Launch scheduled at 21:43.
• 23:00 8 April SpaceX/Dragon CRS-8 Post-Launch News Conference (time subject to change)
• 10:30 10 April Coverage of the Rendezvous and Capture of the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-8 Cargo Craft at the ISS (Grapple scheduled at appx. 12:00)
• 14:30 10 April Coverage of the Installation of the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-8 Cargo Craft to the International Space Station (time subject to change; Installation scheduled to begin at 15:00)