In early 2015, NASA awarded a contract extension to SpaceX for three CRS additional missions (CRS-13 to
CRS-15).[12] In June 2016, a NASA Inspector General report had this mission manifested for September 2017.[13] The flight was then delayed from 13 September, 1 November, 4 December, 12 December, and 13 December 2017.[14] SpaceX pushed off the launch to 15 December due to the detection of
particulates in the second stage fuel system, taking the time to completely flush out the fuel and liquid oxygen tanks on the first and second stages as a precautionary measure.[15][16]
The CRS-13 mission launched aboard a
Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket on 15 December 2017 at 15:36:09
UTC[2] from the
Cape Canaveral Air Force StationSpace Launch Complex 40.[1] The
Dragon spacecraft rendezvoused with the International Space Station on 17 December 2017; the vehicle was captured by the
Canadarm2 at 10:57 UTC[4] and was berthed to the Harmony module's nadir docking port at 13:26 UTC.[5] Dragon spent just under a month at the ISS: it was unberthed on 12 January 2018 at 10:47 UTC and was released from Canadarm2 on 13 January 2018 at 09:58 UTC.[6][7] The spacecraft deorbited a few hours later, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 15:37 UTC carrying 1,850 kg (4,078 lb) of equipment and science experiments.[3]
Payload
NASA has contracted for the CRS-13 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and
orbital parameters for the Dragon
space capsule. CRS-13 carried a total of 2,205 kg (4,861 lb) of material into orbit. This includes 1,560 kg (3,439 lb) of pressurised cargo with packaging bound for the International Space Station, and 645 kg (1,422 lb) of unpressurised cargo composed of two external station experiments: the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) and the Space Debris Sensor (SDS).[8]
The following is a breakdown of cargo bound for the ISS:[8]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
CubeSats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).