NASA announces in a press release that they and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 3:54 pm EST on Tuesday, November 22 as the launch schedule for the CRS-26 Commercial Resupply Mission to the International Space Station (ISS). But in case that fails, they have a backup opportunity on Saturday, November 26, at 2:20 pm EST.
The Dragon spacecraft will automatically dock to the forward port of the Harmony module of the space station at 5:57 am on Wednesday, November 23, to deliver new space experiments and the next pair of rollout solar arrays to augment the power generation system of the ISS.
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket on launch Pad 39A ahead of the scheduled Axiom-1 launch on April 7, 2022 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Axiom Space is managing the first fully private crew on an 10-day mission to the International Space Station.
Sending Experiments to the ISS
The delay in the launch was announced on Friday, November 18, due to a coolant leak in the Dragon cargo capsule. SpaceX has fixed it and the spacecraft is now set to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 22.
Space.com reported that the spacecraft is carrying about 7,700 pounds (3,500 kilograms) of supplies and scientific experiments to the orbiting laboratory, such as experiments designed by students sponsored by the educational outreach programs of the ISS National Laboratory to spur interest in science.
Middle school and high school students competed for the chance to send their scientific projects to the ISS via the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. These experiments involved crystal growth, plant biology, physics, and microbial research.
Payloads from the Girl Scouts of America and Space Kids Global were also included. They aim to investigate brine shrimp, ants, and cellular plant growth in low Earth orbit. These student payloads will join other experiments from companies and research institutes in which some will use the space environment to make biomedical advances.
Of course, CRS-26 also includes another set of the iROSA that will be installed on the spacecraft to increase its power generation. In addition, the mission will also send life-support equipment, GPS hardware, some exercise hardware, and medical equipment.
SpaceX to Launch New Dragon Capsule
The Dragon spacecraft will stay docked at the space station for 45 days, which is 15 days longer than a typical SpaceX cargo flight. The cargo capsule is the last cargo version of the spacecraft that SpaceX will build as a crewed spacecraft is currently under construction, per Space News.
The launch on Tuesday will be the first flight of this newly-built spacecraft, designated C211, which is the third version of the Dragon 2 spacecraft by SpaceX. The company has been alternating between two other cargo Dragon spacecraft named C208 and C209 since the beginning of its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract with the CRS-21 mission in late 2020.
Aside from the three cargo Dragon spacecraft, Elon Musk's company has also four Crew Dragon spacecraft. The company recently announced that it plans to build a fifth and likely the last Dragon capsule.
"This is the last new cargo Dragon spacecraft we plan to build," Space News quoted SpaceX's director of Dragon mission management Sarah Walker. "We recently decided to build one more crewed spacecraft as well."
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