Fresh food, science gear and equipment head to space station

Along with crew supplies and equipment, the Cargo Dragon is delivering two roll-out solar arrays to complete a major power system upgrade. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted an unpiloted Dragon cargo ship into orbit Tuesday, setting up a rendezvous with the International Space Station early Thursday to deliver more than 6,300 pounds of research materials, spare parts and crew supplies. Also on board are two new roll-out solar array blankets, the final sets in a major upgrade to compensate for age-related degradation of the station's original eight solar wings. Six "IROSA" blankets were installed during spacewalks starting in June 2021. The seventh and eighth IROSA arrays on board the Cargo Dragon will be installed during spacewalks later this month and in early November.

The Falcon booster's nine first-stage engines thundered to life at 6:33 a.m. EDT, throttled up and smoothly pushed the rocket away from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust. Two-and-a-half minutes later, now out of the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage fell away and headed back toward Cape Canaveral for a return-to-launch-site landing while the second stage continued the climb to orbit. At almost the same moment, viewers at the Kennedy Space Center enjoyed a stunning view of the space station passing 260 miles overhead. The first