AI Insight
SpaceX is scheduled to launch its CRS-35 cargo mission to the International Space Station on October 13 at 6:33 a.m. EDT, carrying 6,300 pounds of supplies aboard a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The payload includes the final set of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) to increase the station's power capacity, along with scientific equipment for manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity, 3D heart tissue models for drug testing, materials for glass formation studies, and brain organoids for neurodegenerative disease research. The Dragon capsule will dock autonomously on October 15 and remain attached for approximately one month before returning to Earth with experiments and hardware.
Why it matters
This mission supports ongoing biomedical research that could lead to treatments for vision loss and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, while also advancing pharmaceutical testing capabilities through 3D tissue models. The solar array upgrade will enhance the ISS's long-term operational capacity for future scientific missions.
Understand the Science
SpaceX will launch its latest cargo mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday morning (Oct. 13), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch a robotic Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday at 6:33 a.m. EDT (1033 GMT).
You can watch the action live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT).
The launch will kick off the CRS-35 mission, so named because it will be the 35th that SpaceX flies under a Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
If all goes according to plan, Dragon will reach the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (Oct. 15), docking autonomously to the space-facing port of its Harmony module at around 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). You can watch the arrival here at Space.com as well; coverage will start at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT).
CRS-35 will deliver 6,300 pounds (2,860 kilograms) of supplies to the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, including the final set of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs), which will boost the orbiting lab’s energy budget.
There’s also quite a bit of scientific gear heading up on the flight.
Dragon “will deliver hardware to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity to help restore vision on Earth and 3D heart tissue models to advance large‑scale drug testing on future missions,” NASA officials wrote in a CRS-35 launch preview on Oct. 7.
“The spacecraft will carry materials to study how a new type of glass forms in microgravity and brain organoids that could reveal treatment targets for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis,” they added.
Dragon will stay attached to the ISS for about a month, then head back down to Earth with scientific experiments and other hardware. It will splash down safely under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
Dragon is the only currently operational freighter that can carry cargo in the downward direction. The other three — Russia’s Progress, Japan’s HTV-X and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL — are all expendable, burning up in Earth’s atmosphere after their time at the ISS is done.
Source: SpaceX launching 6,300 pounds of cargo to the ISS on Oct. 13: Watch it live