SpaceX’s Next Cargo Dragon Launches Oct. 13 With the ISS’s Final Roll-Out Solar Arrays

A SpaceX Cargo Dragon departs the space station in June. Credit: NASA

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 6:33 a.m. EDT (3:33 a.m. PT) on Tuesday, October 13, for CRS-35, SpaceX’s 35th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. A Falcon 9 will launch the Cargo Dragon from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Dragon is packed with more than 6,300 pounds of supplies, science experiments and equipment. The headline item is the station’s final set of Roll-Out Solar Arrays, the roll-up panels NASA has been adding over the years to boost the power coming from the station’s original solar wings.

The science on board is a mix of medical and materials research:

• Hardware for making artificial retinas in microgravity, aimed at restoring vision on Earth
• 3D heart tissue models to advance large-scale drug testing on future missions
• Brain organoids that could reveal treatment targets for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis
• Materials to study how a new type of glass forms in microgravity

Once in orbit, Dragon will dock on its own at about 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 15, at the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. It’s scheduled to stay until mid-November, then return to Earth with time-critical research and splash down off the California coast.

The launch comes right after a busy week for Dragon at the station. NASA says the Crew-12 Dragon will be back on Earth by Thursday morning after leaving the ISS. NASA will hold a teleconference that afternoon at 1:15 p.m. EDT covering both the Crew-12 return and the CRS-35 launch, with speakers from NASA, SpaceX and the European Space Agency. SpaceX also recently locked a $946 million NASA deal for three more crew flights.

NASA hasn’t said which Dragon capsule or Falcon 9 booster will fly the mission, and the target time can still move with weather or station traffic. Live launch coverage starts at 6:15 a.m. EDT on Oct. 13 through NASA’s website and NASA+, so early risers on the West Coast will need coffee for this one.