NASA and SpaceX are targeting 6:33 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to launch a Falcon 9 carrying an uncrewed Dragon spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA plans to begin live coverage at 6:15 a.m. EDT.
The flight is SpaceX's 35th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Dragon is loaded with more than 6,300 pounds of science investigations, crew supplies and station hardware.
New power hardware for the station
Dragon is carrying the final set of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs. Six of the compact arrays are already installed. NASASpaceflight reports that the last two are intended for the station's 3B and 2A power channels, extending the boost supplied by the aging original arrays.
The solar arrays ride in Dragon's unpressurized trunk. The pressurized capsule carries equipment and experiments spanning vision, heart health, materials science and neurological disease.
Among the payloads, NASA highlights four biological studies. Lab-grown brain models will spend five weeks in orbit so researchers can compare their cellular response with identical models kept on Earth. A crop experiment will test whether a disease-causing fungus affects plants differently in microgravity. Another study will evaluate a compact reader that could let crews measure antibodies, antigens and proteins without waiting for samples to return home. A fourth will track how antibiotic-resistant bacteria survive and change aboard the station.
NASA also lists hardware for manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity and growing 3D heart-tissue models to support future research.
A two-day trip, then a return to Earth
If the launch and rendezvous timeline holds, Dragon is scheduled to dock autonomously at the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module around 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 15. NASA expects the spacecraft to remain there until mid-November.
Dragon can bring equipment and experiments back to Earth. NASA says this capsule is slated to return time-sensitive research and other cargo to a splashdown off California's coast. The schedule remains subject to change as launch and on-orbit operations unfold.
