Astronauts getting 3-D printer delivered to space station

NASA is sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station in hopes that astronauts will be able to one day fix their spacecraft by cranking out spare parts on the spot. The printer (pictured), made by a Northern California company called Made in Space, is among more than 226 kg of space station cargo that’s stuffed into a SpaceX Dragon capsule for a pre-dawn lift-off today.

If we’re really going to set up shop on Mars, we have to do this. We really can’t afford to bring everything we need for an indefinite amount of time. We’ll need to get to the point where we can make things that we need as we go.

Jeff Sheehy, NASA’s senior technologist

Besides real-time replacement parts at the station, NASA envisions astronauts, in the decades ahead, making entire habitats at faraway destinations like Mars. The small 3-D printer on board is a demo unit meant to churn out sample items made from the same type of plastic used for Lego bricks. SpaceX is making the supply run for NASA, the same California company that just won a huge contract - along with Boeing - to deliver U.S. astronauts to the space station. Its Falcon 9 rocket with an unmanned Dragon was scheduled to blast off this morning.

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