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<\/p>\nThe SpaceX CRS-22 mission has come to a close, with Cargo Dragon having departed the International Space Station on Thursday, July 8 after a series of weather delays. NASA and SpaceX teams continued to monitor weather at the landing zones ahead of a successful undocking at 10:45 AM EDT (14:45 UTC).<\/p>\n
Splashdown occurred Friday evening at 11:29 PM EDT (03:29 UTC), in a landing zone off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The mission began with liftoff from historic LC-39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 3. Two days later, the spacecraft successfully performed an autonomous docking to IDA-3 on the zenith (upward facing) docking port of the Harmony module.<\/p>\n
This docking port is preferred for Cargo Dragon missions over IDA-2 on the forward port so that the station\u2019s robotic arm can access unpressurized cargo in Dragon\u2019s trunk. IDA-2 and IDA-3 are the only docking ports compatible with the SpaceX Dragon 2 and Boeing Starliner spacecraft, both of which dock to the station without the assistance of Candarm2.<\/p>\n
The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo vehicle and Japan\u2019s HTV and upcoming HTV-X vehicles berth to the station with the help of the robotic arm, using nadir (Earth-facing) ports on the station\u2019s Unity or Harmony modules. Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles autonomously dock to the Russian segment of the ISS.<\/p>\n
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The vehicles docked to the ISS prior to the departure of CRS-22 \u2013 via NASA<\/p>\n
The Dragon spacecraft operating the CRS-22 mission is Dragon C209, making its first flight. Unlike the Crew Dragon vehicles, which are named by their first crews, Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft are referred to by their serial numbers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Spaceflight news subscription (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Dragon C209, while on its first flight, is sporting a reused heat shield which previously protected NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the Demo-2 mission in August 2020. C209 is the second in a planned fleet of three Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft.<\/p>\n CRS-22 is the second SpaceX cargo resupply mission under the CRS2 (Commercial Resupply Services 2) contract, and thus the second flight of the Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft following the retirement of Cargo Dragon 1 after CRS-20. CRS-22 is also the sixth orbital Dragon 2 mission, including the uncrewed Demo-1 flight and three crewed flights to the ISS to date.<\/p>\n The CRS-22 mission delivered supplies and science investigations to the station, notably including the first two of six new solar arrays. The ISS Roll Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) are being installed to improve power generation capabilities as the eight original solar array wings, installed between 2000 and 2009, are naturally beginning to degrade and produce less power. This coupled with the increasing science demands on the outpost necessitated adding six new, smaller arrays contracted through Boeing.<\/p>\n The first pair of solar arrays were installed over the course of three spacewalks conducted by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough. The two remaining pairs of arrays will be launched on the SpaceX CRS-25 and CRS-26 missions.<\/p>\n Render of three iROSAs after installation \u2013 via Mack Crawford for NSF\/L2<\/p>\n Dragon also delivered a few CubeSats to be deployed from the ISS along with other pressurized cargo for NASA and ESA.<\/p>\n The Dragon spacecraft undocked at 10:45 AM EDT (14:45 UTC) on Thursday, July 8. This is a two day delay from the original undocking target of July 6 as a result of Tropical Storm\/Hurricane Elsa causing weather concerns at the splashdown zones.<\/p>\n NASA and SpaceX teams continued to monitor weather conditions in advance of selecting the Tallahassee splashdown zone just prior to undocking. If weather or any other factors would have required an aborted landing after undocking, Dragon is capable of free flying for a couple days to await better landing conditions.<\/p>\n Once autonomous undocking is commanded, the spacecraft is monitored by ground controllers at SpaceX mission control (MCC-X) at the company\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, as well as NASA controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas (MCC-H). Dragon\u2019s departure is also watched by Shane Kimbrough onboard station.<\/p>\n Once the spacecraft is separated from the ISS, Dragon uses its Draco thrusters to maneuver into an orbit which passes over the selected splashdown zone. There are seven areas available for Dragon 2 missions: four off the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the east coast of Florida in the Atlantic.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/brickmack.jpg\")
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