SpaceX cargo launch to space station targets early Tuesday liftoff
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is targeting liftoff at 6:33 am Eastern Time on Tuesday, October 13, from Cape Canaveral's SLC-40 with NASA's 35th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. A backup window is available at 6:08 am on Wednesday, October 14.
The Dragon capsule will carry more than 6,300 lbs of supplies, science equipment and the final set of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays. It is expected to dock autonomously at about 11 am on Thursday, October 15, at the station's Harmony module. The Falcon 9 booster will return to Landing Zone 40, with sonic booms expected over Central Florida.
The science cargo includes materials for manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity, 3D heart-tissue models for drug testing, and brain organoids for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple-sclerosis research — experiments that take advantage of the station's weightless environment.
