Space Station

A SpaceX cargo capsule undocked from the International Space Station Thursday and headed for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after a two-day delay to wait for Tropical Storm Elsa to clear the area.

A SpaceX cargo ship that delivered upgraded solar arrays to the International Space Station last month departed the orbiting outpost Thursday to begin the trip back to Earth. Undocking occurred at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT) Thursday, setting up for a re-entry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico Friday at 11:29 p.m. EDT (0329 GMT Saturday).

Russia’s automated Progress MS-17 cargo ship docked with the International Space Station Thursday, wrapping up a two-day journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with nearly 2.7 tons of fuel, food, water, and supplies.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA crewmate Shane Kimbrough floated back outside the International Space Station Friday and deployed a 60-foot-long roll-out solar array, the second of six new blankets being installed to upgrade the lab’s power system and offset age-related degradation.

Astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough floated outside the International Space Station Sunday to deploy and unroll a new solar array blanket after encountering spacesuit glitches and an interference issue during a previous excursion Wednesday.

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and attached a rolled-up solar array, the first of six intended to boost the lab’s power back to factory fresh levels. But a spacesuit glitch and then an interference issue with the array mechanism prevented them from extending the new panel as planned.

Wrapping up a two-day transit from a launch pad in Florida, a SpaceX Dragon capsule autonomously linked up with the International Space Station Saturday with more than 7,300 pounds of cargo, including new solar arrays, crew supplies, and experiments looking at how spaceflight affects the biology of tardigrades and baby squid.