Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit writes about SpaceX Dragon in the diary of a space zucchini in his latest blog entry.
http://go.usa.gov/vUB
Teamwork
May 24
Tomorrow we capture the Dragon. I can tell that Gardener is focused on that task. We have made preparations; the place with all the windows is set up for flying the dragon catcher. There is a special control panel on a long cable with large brightly colored
push buttons. I thought this was something you would give a toddler to play with. I am told it is used to control Dragon. Gardener played one more set of computer games. He has played this game over 500 times now. He gave us all a long smell and went to bed.
Broccoli, Sunflower, and I took the night watch so everyone else could sleep.
May 26
We now have a Dragon. There was much excitement during yesterday’s capture and we all felt a certain level of relief to know he was now onboard. There were only a few problems that we worked out with the help from the Big Gardener on the radio. This is teamwork
at its best; plants and animals all working together for a common mission objective. We opened Dragon’s mouth and looked inside. He brought us all kinds of treasures, safely kept in his belly.
May 31
We released Dragon today. The treasures he brought were traded for some of our goods and then he went on his way. I like this concept; Dragon brings us things we can use in exchange for things we have made on orbit. The things we make on orbit are samples from
our scientific experiments. They have great value to the Big Gardener on Earth. Explorers use to bring back silk and spices. Now we bring back scientific samples, crystals, blood, and urine. Within these goods lay spoils more valuable that plundered gold for
they are the key to advancing our knowledge. Sometimes we give Dragon broken spacecraft parts that he will repair and bring back on his next visit. Before we closed the hatch, we placed a picture of our crew on the bulkhead. Dragon seemed anxious to go. I guess
when a Dragon visits, they do not stay long.
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