More power for the ISS: Dragon freighter due to deliver final roll-out solar arrays today
A Falcon 9 is set to launch the CRS-35 cargo mission to the ISS on Tuesday at 6:33 a.m. EDT, carrying the last iROSA solar arrays and experiments on artificial retinas and heart tissue.
Symbolic image · Photo: NASA / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Cargo Dragon freighter from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the International Space Station at 6:33 a.m. local time (12:33 CEST) on Tuesday. For CRS-35, SpaceX's 35th resupply flight for NASA, forecasters see less than a five percent chance of unfavourable launch weather, according to NASASpaceFlight. First stage B1096 is flying for the eighth time and is to land next to the pad, while capsule C211 is making its fourth flight.
The capsule's unpressurized trunk holds the last pair of iROSA roll-out solar arrays. Six of these arrays are already installed on the station, each generating 20 to 28 kilowatts; the two new ones are to be fitted during future spacewalks and raise the output of the ageing power system by 20 to 30 percent. In total, the freighter carries about 2,860 kilograms of supplies, Space.com reported.
The experiments include hardware for making artificial retinas in microgravity, as well as 3D models of human heart tissue for drug testing, brain organoids to study diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, and research on a new type of glass. Dragon is due to dock at the Harmony module on Thursday at around 11 a.m. EDT. After about a month the capsule will return, bringing back among other things a failed joint from the Canadarm2 robotic arm.