DOCKING OF SPACEX CRS-21 CARGO MISSION TO ISS, Dec 7, 2020, Earth orbit, 1:30 pm ET

Update, December 6:  Launch was successful today at 11:17 am ET. Docking is at 1:30 pm ET tomorrow (December 7) and NASA TV coverage begins at 11:30 am ET.

Update, December 5:  The launch has been postponed by one day, to December 6.  According to NASA’s TV schedule, docking will now take place on December 7 at 1:30 pm ET and NASA TV coverage begins 11:30 am ET.

Original Entry: SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS)-21 (SpX-21) cargo mission to the International Space Station will dock at 11:30 am on December 6, 2020 if launch takes place as planned on December 5.

This is the first flight of a new version of Cargo Dragon.  Derived from Crew Dragon design, it will be the first SpaceX cargo mission to dock autonomously (like Crew Dragon does) instead of berthing like the previous version of the cargo spacecraft.  That one could not dock.  It had to captured using the crew-operated Canadarm2 and then installed onto a docking port.

NASA TV coverage begins at 9:30 am ET.