New Delhi: A SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft is carrying holiday treats and Christmas presents, along with science experiments, crew supplies and other cargo, to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft blasted off to space at 5:07 am EST (3:37 pm IST) on Tuesday, December 21.


The cargo was launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as part of SpaceX's 24th cargo resupply mission. 


The spacecraft will dock into the ISS on December 22, and remain there for a month, NASA said on its website.


Expedition 66 crew members — NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Mark Vande Hei, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov — will be celebrating Christmas aboard the orbital laboratory this year. 


This would be the first Christmas for all the crewmembers except for Vande Hei, Shkaplerov, and Marshburn. 


NASA tweeted about the cargo resupply mission on Tuesday. The US space agency mentioned that it was a special delivery, and that the Dragon spacecraft was carrying food and supplies to the space station. In the same thread, a Twitter user asked NASA if the spacecraft was delivering a Christmas present.


NASA replied in the affirmative. The space agency wrote that the space station crew will receive gifts and a holiday food delivery. It said that the crew have roasted turkey, spicy green beans, smoked seafood, and fruit cake on the menu. 


🎁 It is! The @Space_Station crew will receive gifts and a holiday food delivery. On the menu they have roasted turkey, spicy green beans, smoked seafood, and fruit cake.






During a news briefing before the resupply launch, NASA's space station program manager, Joel Montalbano, said the space agency was sending food and gifts for the crew, according to a space.com report. 


Other interesting items being sent to the space station include a Tide detergent developed by Proctor & Gamble (P&G), and a Skin Bioprinter. The detergent, called Tide Infinity, is a fully degradable detergent specifically designed for use in space. Tide, once proven in space, plans to use the new cleaning methods and detergent to advance sustainable, low-resource-use laundry solutions on Earth, NASA said on its website. 


BioPrint FirstAid is a portable handheld bioprinter developed by the German Aerospace Center that will use a patient's own skin cells to create a tissue-forming patch to cover a wound and accelerate the healing process. This will be beneficial during future missions to the Moon and Mars.