SpaceX Dragon delivers supplies, upgraded solar arrays to space station - TESLARATI

Following a flawless Saturday launch, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station on Sunday morning, delivering several tons of supplies and a second set of upgraded solar arrays to the orbital outpost.

In what has become a rare event for the company, an all-new Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft were assigned to the mission – SpaceX’s latest launch under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program.

17 hours and 19 minutes later, Dragon successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS), making CRS-26’s rendezvous the second fastest in SpaceX history and the fastest completed by a Cargo Dragon.

Dragon docked to the ISS carrying more than 3.5 tons (7777 lb) of cargo, including one ton of crew supplies and one ton of science experiments.

Thanks to a new Roll-Out Solar Array technology that allows each of the six planned arrays to roll up into a compact cylinder, NASA has been able to fit two arrays at once inside the unpressurized ‘trunk’ section of SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX launched the first pair of iROSA arrays in June 2021 and will likely launch the third and final pair in 2023.