SpaceX Dragon spacecraft delivers espresso machine to space station

A private Dragon cargo ship owned by SpaceX arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday to deliver nearly 2 tons of astronaut supplies and science experiments, including an espresso machine designed for use in microgravity.

The Dragon spacecraft was successfully captured by a robotic arm operated by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti inside the space station at 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT), as the two flew 257 miles (about 414 km) over the Pacific Ocean just east of Japan, U.S. space agency NASA said.

The spacecraft, which was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, was packed with more than 4,300 pounds (1,950 kg) of supplies and experiments.

One of the interesting cargo on this run is an espresso machine, dubbed ISSpresso, for Cristoforetti and other space station crews to make tea, coffee, broth or other hot beverages.

"Crew members may enjoy an ISSpresso beverage using specially designed space cups as part of the Capillary Beverage study -- an improvement to the standard drinking pouch with a straw," a NASA statement said.

The Dragon will remain connected to the space station for about five weeks before departing for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California.

This is the sixth cargo delivery mission for SpaceX to the orbiting lab. The company's 1.6-billion-U.S.-dollar contract with NASA requires at least a dozen cargo delivery flights in all. Endi