SpaceX Capsule Delivers Supplies to Space Station

In this NASA handout, This composite image made from six frames shows the International Space Station, with a crew of seven aboard, is seen in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second on Friday, April 23, 2021, as seen from Nottingham, Maryland. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images

SpaceX’s latest cargo delivery showed up at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday after a day in transit.

NASA released pictures of the automated docking, overseen by NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, who was celebrating her 50th birthday onboard the space station.

Launched on Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, the capsule contains lemons, cherry tomatoes, avocados, and ice cream for McArthur and her six crewmates, along with a couple tons of research and other gear.

“No one’s ever sent me a spaceship for my birthday before. I appreciate it,” she radioed after the capsule arrived.

The shipment arrived just a few days ahead of the first of three spacewalks.

Starting on Friday, the two Russians on board will perform back-to-back spacewalks to outfit a new laboratory that arrived in July.

Then a Japanese-French spacewalking duo will venture out September 12 to install a bracket for new solar panels due to arrive next year.

That NASA-directed spacewalk should have occurred last week, but was postponed after U.S. spacewalker, Mark Vande Hei, suffered a pinched nerve in his neck.