ISS Crew Begins Unloading SpaceX Resupply Vessel Written 20 December 2017

Spaceflight Now reports that the ISS crew have begun unloading a SpaceX cargo ship that docked at the space station Sunday. The Dragon spacecraft was loaded with “1,080 pounds (490 kilograms) of crew supplies such as food, clothing and care packages, 1,568 pounds (711 kilograms) of experiments and research equipment, 417 pounds (189 kilograms) of space parts and vehicle hardware, 364 pounds (165 kilograms) of spacewalking gear, including a spacesuit and a spacewalking jetpack, and 11 pounds of computer resources.” NASA ISS Program Deputy Chief Scientist Kirt Costello said that the payload from “SpaceX-13 is big on biology. Plant growth, one of the areas that we do research into on the space station, has eight investigations flying on the SpaceX Dragon, and they spread out over multiple different facilities.” Experiments will “investigate how plants grow in partial gravity for the first time,” test a “bio-culture system that could grow cells and small tissues for research in orbit,” and “study how optical fiber could be produced in orbit,” among other studies.
More Info (Spaceflight Now)