SpaceX Dragon cargo ship docks at space station to deliver solar arrays, seeds and more - Space.com

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SpaceX's latest Dragon cargo vessel arrived astatine the International Space Station (ISS) aboriginal Sunday (Nov. 27) to present tons of caller supplies, caller star wings nd adjacent immoderate crystal pick for the orbiting lab.

The robotic Dragon spacecraft docked with the orbiting laboratory Sunday astir 7:39 a.m. EST (1230 GMT) arsenic some spacecraft sailed precocious implicit the Pacific Ocean.

"We're excited to unpack and get to work," NASA astronaut Josh Cassada radioed Mission Contro from the presumption aft the palmy docking.

"Hopefully you tin bask your well-deserved and long-awaited crystal pick soon," Mission Control's Megan Harvey replied.

Sunday's meetup ended a little orbital pursuit for Dragon; the SpaceX freighter launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket connected Saturday day (Nov. 26) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center successful Florida.

The SpaceX Dragon CRS-26 cargo vessel seen successful abstraction with the bluish Earth below.

Dragon is packed with astir 7,700 pounds (3,500 kilograms) of cargo. The manifest includes 2 caller International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs), cogwheel designed to augment the orbiting lab's existing star wings.

The ISS volition yet diagnostic six iROSAs, which unneurotic volition boost the station's powerfulness proviso by 20% to 30%. Spacewalking astronauts person installed 2 of the caller arrays to date.

Dragon besides delivered a wide assortment of technological experiments to the ISS connected this trip. For example, 1 survey bound for the presumption volition turn dwarf cherry tomatoes from seeds successful a bid to assistance ramp up off-Earth nutrient production. Another probe volition proceed erstwhile microgravity research with 3D-cultured bosom tissue (opens successful caller tab), investigating imaginable therapies that could forestall oregon dilatory the improvement of cardiac disease.

Dragon's existent ngo is called CRS-26, due to the fact that it is the 26th robotic cargo formation that SpaceX is flying to the ISS for NASA. CRS-26 had been scheduled to assistance disconnected connected Tuesday (Nov. 22) but was pushed backmost by atrocious weather.

Cargo Dragons usually enactment docked to the ISS for astir a month, but CRS-26 volition stay aloft for 45 days oregon so, NASA officials person said. The other clip was allotted, successful part, to let for the spacewalks needed to instal the iROSAs.

CRS-26 volition extremity with a parachute-aided water splashdown. Dragon is the lone presently operational cargo trade that comes backmost to Earth successful 1 portion pursuing its missions. The different 2 progressive freighters — Northrop Grumman's Cygnus conveyance and Russia's Progress trade — are designed to pain up successful Earth's ambiance erstwhile their clip successful orbit is up.

Mike Wall is the writer of "Out There (opens successful caller tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a publication astir the hunt for alien life. Follow him connected Twitter @michaeldwall (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or Facebook (opens successful caller tab).

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Michael Wall is simply a Senior Space Writer with Space.com (opens successful caller tab) and joined the squad successful 2010. He chiefly covers exoplanets, spaceflight and subject space, but has been known to dabble successful the abstraction creation beat. His publication astir the hunt for alien life, "Out There," was published connected Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a subject writer, Michael worked arsenic a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. successful evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's grade from the University of Arizona, and a postgraduate certificate successful subject penning from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find retired what his latest task is, you tin travel Michael connected Twitter.

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