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NASA cargo ship lifts off for the station

NASA says the rocket carried more than 6,300 pounds of supplies and hardware for the International Space Station.

Lyra Fen · Published · Updated Primary source: NASA · Explore evidence and context

NASA's 35th commercial resupply mission with SpaceX lifted off at 6:33 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA says the rocket carried more than 6,300 pounds of supplies and hardware for the International Space Station.

spacex resupply
NASA

Dragon is carrying new experiments, cargo, and the final pair of the station's roll-out solar arrays. NASA says it is scheduled to dock on its own at 11 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, October 15, at the space-facing port of the Harmony module. Coverage of that docking is set to begin at 9:15 a.m.

NASA says the arrays will complete an upgrade of the station's power system for research, operations, and a controlled deorbit. Astronauts are to install them on spacewalks later this fall.

NASA says the cargo also includes hardware to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity that could help restore vision, three-dimensional heart tissue models for drug testing on future missions, materials for studying how a new type of glass forms in microgravity, and brain organoids that could uncover treatment targets for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. The release describes what the hardware is for. It does not report a result from any of those experiments.

Dragon is scheduled to stay at the station until mid-November, then return with research and cargo and splash down off the coast of California. The launch is the part NASA reports as completed. The docking time and the return date are still schedules.