SpaceX CRS-11, also known as SpX-11, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

, launched successfully on 3 June 2017. The mission was contracted by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and was flown by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

. The mission utilized a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

launch vehicle and was the first reuse of C106, a CRS Dragon cargo vessel that was previously flown on the CRS-4 mission. CRS-11 was the penultimate of the first twelve missions awarded to SpaceX under the

Commercial Resupply Services Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first phase of CRS contracts (CRS-1) were sign ...

contract to resupply the International Space Station.

Rocket and spacecraft

The CRS-11 mission was the first time that a Dragon spacecraft has been reused, helping SpaceX to scale back its production line and shift focus to Dragon 2. CRS-11 launched aboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on 3 June 2017 at 21:07:38 UTC from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

's Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A). The spacecraft rendezvoused with the station on 5 June 2017 and conducted a series of orbit adjustment burns to match speed, altitude, and orientation with the ISS. After arriving at the capture point at 13:37 UTC, the vehicle was snared at 13:52 UTC by the Canadarm2, operated by Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer. It was berthed to the ''

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

'' module at 16:07 UTC. The Falcon 9 first stage landed successfully on Landing Zone 1, making it the fifth successful touch down on land and the 11th overall. The CRS-11 Dragon remained attached to the ISS for just over 27 days. Having been filled with around of cargo, Dragon was unberthed from the station on 2 July 2017 at approximately 18:00 UTC. It was moved to its release position by Canadarm2, but poor sea conditions forced a delay to the following day. On 3 July 2017, at 06:41 UTC, crew members commanded Canadarm2 to release Dragon, and soon after the spacecraft began a series of thruster firings to move it away from the station. About five hours after departing from ISS, Dragon closed its guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) bay door and conducted a 10-minute deorbit burn. Immediately after, the spacecraft jettisoned its cargo trunk and oriented itself for reentry. Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

at 12:12 UTC.

Payload

NASA has contracted for the CRS-11 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and orbital parameters for the Dragon

space capsule A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Capsules are distinguished from other spacecraft by the ability to survive reentry and return a payload to the Earth's surfa ...

. CRS-11 carried a total of of material into orbit. This included of pressurised cargo with packaging bound for the International Space Station, and of unpressurised cargo composed of three external station experiments: Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), MUSES and Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA). The following is a breakdown of cargo bound for the ISS: * Science investigations: ** Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) - a NASA- and ORBITEC-developed payload built in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. APH is a fully automated facility that is used to conduct plant bioscience research on the ISS. * Crew supplies: * Vehicle hardware: * Spacewalk equipment: * Computer resources: * External payloads: ** Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA): ** Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER): ** Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES): A constellation of five

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

s was also carried on the mission as part of Birds-1, one each from the countries of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

, and

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. The satellites from Bangladesh ('' BRAC ONNESHA''), Ghana ('' GhanaSat-1''), and Mongolia ('' Mazaalai'') were those countries' first satellites in space.

Gallery

References

External links

*
Dragon website
at SpaceX.com
Commercial Resupply Services
at nasa.gov {{DEFAULTSORT:CRS 011 SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft launched in 2017 Spacecraft which reentered in 2017 SpaceX payloads contracted by NASA Supply vehicles for the International Space Station

Rocket and spacecraft

Payload

Gallery

See also

References

External links