KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – SpaceX on Saturday successfully launched a Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center.
The “resupply” aspect of the CRS-26 mission was possible with a Cargo Dragon capsule, loaded with over 7,700 pounds of research supplies — including tomato seeds and exercise equipment — as it rode a Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit at 2:20 p.m. Saturday.
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SpaceX scrubbed a previous CRS-26 launch attempt on Tuesday due to some unfavorable weather over at Launch Complex 39-A. According to the 45th Weather Squadron, weather conditions at launch time Saturday were considered 70% favorable to let the mission proceed.
The Dragon capsule went on to dock with the ISS autonomously at around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, with NASA confirming soft capture at 7:39 a.m. ET and a hard mate between Dragon and the ISS at 7:50 a.m.
Described on NASA’s blog, CRS-26 brings important research, crew supplies and hardware to the ISS crew, as well as a second pair of new solar arrays for the ISS. The first pair of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, AKA iROSAs, was installed in June 2021.
Watch the launch again in the media player below:
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