Image Gallery: Astronauts Capture a Dragon

By Nancy Atkinson - March 04, 2013 11:34 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Sunday was a big day in space, and astronaut Chris Hadfield captured the excitement in photos, and shared them via Twitter. "What a day!"

Hadfield tweeted

. "Reached & grabbed a Dragon, berthed her to Station & opened the hatch to find fresh fruit, notes from friends, and peanut butter."

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft overcame a problem with its thrusters after reaching orbit on Friday, and on Sunday Dragon successfully approached the Station, where it was captured by Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and crewmate Tom Marshburn using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. Dragon was grappled at 5:31 a.m. EST, and was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module at approximately 8:56 a.m. EST on March 3.

See more photos below. The image captions are Hadfield's Tweets.

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'Dragon comes into view - first sight this morning, sneaking up on us from behind the Progress solar array,' tweeted Chris Hadfied. Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield. [/caption]

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'The Dragon spaceship high over Mount Etna - both spitting fire.' Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield. [/caption]

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The Dragon approaches the ISS over sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield. [/caption]

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Hadfield's self-portrait in the Cupola with rising Dragon below, Africa behind. Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield. [/caption]

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'Like a Praying Mantis, Canadarm2 poised to reach out and grab Dragon.' Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield.[/caption]

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'Success! Canadarm2 holds Dragon by the nose, to drag it up and hook it on to a Station hatch.' Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield. [/caption]

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'Happy crewmember - Dragon securely snared by Canadarm2, ready to be lifted around, hooked into place, and opened up.' Credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield. [/caption]

In this video, Hadfield provides a tour of the Robotic Workstation where the crew commanded Canadarm2 to capture and dock the Dragon:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com