WATCH: Carrying supplies for the One Year Crew in the ISS, the SpaceX resupply mission successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Florida.
TORONTO – Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was likely very happy that SpaceX‘s resupply mission to the International Space Station was a success on Tuesday. That’s because the crew is getting a special delivery: an espresso machine.
Probably not a surprise, the espresso machine — called ISSpresso — was made by Italian company Lavazza in partnership engineering company Argotec and the Italian Space Agency.
The launch was originally scheduled for Monday at 4:33 p.m. ET, but had to be scrubbed due to nearby thunderstorms.
Space agencies try to provide the comforts of home as much as they can for the astronauts who live aboard the space station on average for six months (the first one-year mission is now under way). Just think about Chris Hadfield’s guitar.
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“The psychological support is very, very important,” said NASA space station program deputy manager Dan Hartman. “If an espresso machine comes back and we get a lot of great comments from the crew … It’s kind of like the ice cream thing, right, when we fly ice cream every now and then. It’s just to boost spirits. Maybe some rough day, a scoop of ice cream gets them over that hump kind of thing.”
There is about 4,300 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. One experiment will be an investigation into the visual changes many astronauts report after living on the station.
For the third time, SpaceX attempted to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge. Though it reached its target successfully, it did not land.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, strives to reduce launch costs by having reusable spacecraft. The company had estimated that there was a 75 to 80 per cent chance of success.
–with files from The Associated Press
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