NASA and SpaceX are scheduled to launch a Cargo Dragon spacecraft toward the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:33 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Oct. 13.
The Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 on a northeasterly path, carrying about 6,300 pounds of cargo on SpaceX’s 35th station resupply mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.
Dragon C211 will carry the final pair of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, known as iROSAs, intended to augment power generation on the aging space station. Its unpressurized trunk also holds an apparatus for a failed Canadarm2 joint removed during a June 30 spacewalk.
Inside the spacecraft are supplies and maintenance equipment, including a toilet dose pump, water-quality sensors and a robotic microconical tool, according to Bill Spetch, deputy manager of Commercial for NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program. The payload also includes experiments involving artificial retinas, 3D heart-tissue models, glass made with non-traditional elements and the connection between inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases.
If the launch and flight proceed as planned, the spacecraft will dock at the space-facing, or zenith, port on the station’s Harmony module around 11 a.m. EDT on Oct. 15. That port was recently vacated by Crew Dragon Freedom after it returned NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 astronauts to Earth on Oct. 8.
The mission will be the fourth cargo flight for Dragon C211, following CRS-26, CRS-29 and CRS-33. Falcon 9 booster B1096 is slated to make its eighth launch. Dragon is expected to remain docked to the station for about a month.
