SpaceX plans to reuse each Cargo Dragon up to five times. Cargo Dragon does not include SuperDraco abort engines, seats, cockpit controls or life support system neded on a Crew Dragon.[4][5]Dragon 2 improves on Dragon 1 in several ways, including lessened refurbishment time, leading to shorter periods between flights.[6]
Cargo Dragon capsules under the NASA CRS Phase 2 contract land near Florida in the ocean.[4][6]
Payload
NASA contracted for the CRS-26 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date of launch, and orbital parameters for the Cargo Dragon.[7]
Second pair of new solar arrays using XTJ Prime space solar cells. They were delivered to the station in the unpressurized trunk of the Cargo Dragon spacecraft.[8]
The installation of these new solar arrays, designated 4A and 3A, required two spacewalks: one to prepare the worksite with a modification kit and another to install the new panel.[8][9]
European Space Agency (ESA) research and activities:
ESA's Suture in Space experiment investigating how tissues heal in weightlessness. Living tissue from biopsies will be cut and sewn back together, before being sent to space where astronauts will activate the cells to monitor the healing mechanisms.[[11]]
ESA's Osteogenic Cells experiment which aims to investigate the mechanisms of impaired bone formation during space flight and whether microgravity conditions alter osteoblast function in vitro.
As part of the research payload, the Artery in Microgravity [1] experiment from the ESA Orbit Your Thesis programme [2] will be installed inside the ICE Cubes Facility [3].
MARIO (Measurement of Actuator Response and Impedance on Orbit) is a 3U CubeSat collaboration between the University of Michigan's Michigan eXploration Laboratory (MXL), Extreme Diagnostics, and Michigan's Active Intelligent and Multifunctional Structure (AIMS) Lab, and NASA. The mission objective is to characterize the performance of piezoelectric actuators and health monitoring systems in low Earth orbit conditions. Test data will help develop future advanced space mechanisms.
NUTSat is a 2U CubeSat for systems engineering training and commercial aircraft safety technology demonstration mission, from NFU, Let'scom, Gran Systems and NSPO.
LORIS (Low Orbit Reconnaissance Imagery Satellite) from Dalhousie University, will be the first CubeSat from Atlantic Canada to be launched by the Canadian Space Agency. The mission objective is to obtain photographs via the camera payload, which will be used to study and monitor shorelines and ocean life activity.[4]
^"SpaceX Commercial Resupply". ISS Program Office. NASA. 1 July 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"ISS Research Program". Glenn Research Center. NASA. 1 January 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Cubesats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
Launch of CRS-26
Dragon approaching the ISS
Dragon docked to the ISS.jpeg)
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