SpaceX CRS-12, also known as SpX-12, was a

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 ...

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 on 14 August 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 ...

using a new

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

capsule. The Falcon 9 rocket's reusable first stage performed a controlled landing on

Landing Zone 1 Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station used by SpaceX. They allow the company to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket or the two side boost ...

(LZ1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After delivering more than of cargo, the Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth on 17 September 2017.

Mission overview

CRS-12 is the last of the original order of twelve missions awarded to SpaceX under the CRS contract. Originally scheduled for December 2016, the flight was delayed multiple times to August 2017. Launch occurred on 14 August 2017 at 16:31:37

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

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 ...

Launch Complex 39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, was built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V lau ...

aboard a SpaceX

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 ...

rocket. After Dragon rendezvoused with the ISS on 16 August 2017, the station's

Canadarm2 The Mobile Servicing System (MSS) is a robotic system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Launched to the ISS in 2001, it plays a key role in station assembly and maintenance; it moves equipment and supplies around the station, suppo ...

grappled the spacecraft at 10:52 UTC. It was then 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 13:07 UTC. Having been at the ISS for a month, the CRS-12 Dragon capsule was unberthed in the late hours of 16 September 2017 and was released by the Canadarm2 on 17 September at 08:40 UTC. After performing separation burns to take it out of the vicinity of the ISS, the Dragon performed a deorbit burn to enable atmospheric reentry. The spacecraft successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean at 14:14 UTC, returning approximately of experiments and equipment to Earth.

Payload

NASA has contracted for the CRS-12 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and

orbital parameters Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same o ...

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-12 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 the

CREAM Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

instrument, to be mounted externally to the ISS. The following is a breakdown of cargo bound for the ISS: * Science investigations: * Crew supplies: * Vehicle hardware: * Spacewalk equipment: * Computer resources: * External payloads: ** Cosmic-Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM):

Gallery

References

External links

*
Dragon website
at SpaceX.com
Commercial Resupply Services
at NASA.gov {{DEFAULTSORT:CRS 012 SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft launched in 2017 Spacecraft which reentered in 2017 SpaceX payloads contracted by NASA Supply vehicles for the International Space Station

Mission overview

Payload

Gallery

See also

References

External links