David Saint-Jacques to use Canadarm2 for Dragon cargo vehicle capture

Longueuil, Quebec, May 3, 2019 — Tomorrow, SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship will head to the International Space Station (ISS) after blasting off from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

Later this week, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut David Saint-Jacques will use Canadarm2 to perform a "cosmic catch.” This will be Saint-Jacques' first time at the controls of Canadarm2 aboard the ISS. NASA astronaut Nick Hague will act as back-up and assist the operation.

Among other cargo, the Dragon vehicle is bringing 1.2 million tomato seeds to the ISS as part of the Tomatosphere project.

Approximately one month later, the cargo ship will travel back to Earth, carrying the tomato seeds and delivering blood and air samples for MARROW, the Canadian investigation into space-related changes to astronauts' bone marrow.

Media are invited to watch the launch and capture operations live.

Schedule:
Launch – NASA TV – Saturday, May 4, starting at 2:30 a.m. ET
Capture operations – CSA YouTube channel – Monday, May 6, starting at 6:40 a.m. ET (capture scheduled for 7:30 a.m. ET)

What:
Launch and capture of SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship

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