SpaceX’s CRS-28 Dragon is set to launch to the International Space Station with cargo and supplies, including a new set of solar arrays for the orbiting laboratory.
Launching atop a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida, the cargo Dragon will take about a day to reach the outpost. The spacecraft will dock with the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.
Inside the pressurized capsule will be several thousand kilograms of science equipment and supplies for the Expedition 69 crew. In the unpressurized trunk section will be two ISS Roll Out Solar Arrays, each known as an iROSA.
The iROSAs will be removed from the trunk via the space station’s robotic Canadarm. Over the following weeks, the arrays will be installed by spacewalking astronauts.
These are the final pair of iROSAs to be brought to the outpost, a process that began in June 2021. This increase the space station’s power capacity above those generated by the legacy arrays, which have degraded over the roughly two decades since they were orbited.