CRS-35: SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches 2,860 kg Of Cargo To The Space Station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a Dragon capsule (C211) at 1035 UTC Monday (Oct. 13) from Space Launch Complex 40(SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on the company's 35th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-35) mission -- carrying 2,860 kilograms of cargo, including crew provisions, scientific equipment, and hardware -- to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Falcon 9 first-stage booster, B1096, on its eighth flight, returned to Landing Zone 40 near the launch site, producing sonic booms across Central Florida. And the uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft separated from the rocket’s second stage about nine minutes after liftoff, beginning its ~52-hour journey to the orbiting laboratory. C211 is on its fourth flight, previously serving CRS-26, CRS-29, and CRS-33 mission.

Dragon will reach the ISS on Thursday (Oct. 15), docking autonomously to the space-facing port of its Harmony module at around 1500 UTC.

The primary cargo of C211 is the final pair of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs). These flexible solar panels, each generating 20 kilowatts, will complete the station’s power system augmentation, boosting electricity for ongoing research, routine operations, and the station’s eventual controlled deorbit in 2030. Astronauts from the Crew-13 mission are scheduled to install these arrays during spacewalks later in the fall.

The Dragon capsule transported several key experiments to support health research on Earth, including hardware to manufacture retinal tissue in microgravity to aid vision restoration research; brain organoids to investigate potential treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis; and 3D heart tissue models for drug testing and studies on the formation of unconventional glass in microgravity.

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."

Dragon will remain attached to the ISS for about one month before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean in mid-November, returning scientific samples and hardware such as a failed Canadarm2 joint for analysis. Unlike Russia's Progress, Japan's HTV-X and Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL which are all expendable, burning up in Earth's atmosphere after their time at the ISS, Dragon is the only currently operational freighter that can return cargo to Earth.