Full Breakdown
SpaceX CRS-35 Resupply Mission Launches to the International Space Station
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Launch Overview: 35th Commercial Resupply Flight
On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, SpaceX lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The vehicle carried the Dragon cargo capsule for CRS-35, the 35th resupply mission flown under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. After an approximately 52-hour flight, Dragon is scheduled to dock autonomously with the ISS’s Harmony module on the following Thursday around 11 a.m. Eastern time.
Program Context
CRS-35 marks the fourth flight of the Dragon spacecraft and the eighth flight of the specific first-stage booster used for this launch. The mission arrives as the International Space Station enters its final operational phase, with the orbital laboratory slated to conclude activities at the end of 2030. The flight continues a long-standing partnership between NASA and SpaceX that began with the first CRS mission in 2012.
Key Payload Details
- Cargo mass: more than 6,300 pounds (? 2,860 kg) of supplies, hardware and scientific experiments.
- Power upgrade: the final pair of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs), intended for installation during late-autumn spacewalks, will complete the station’s power-system upgrade.
- Scientific investigations:
- LambdaVision-1 – manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity.
- Stellar Spheroids – 3-D human heart-tissue models to study vascular development.
- ELF-Unconventional Glass 2 – formation of non-traditional glass types in space.
- MINDS – brain organoids probing inflammation linked to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.
- Additional hardware: a collapsible urinal demo for Artemis III, maintenance equipment, and a failed Canadarm2 joint slated for return to Earth.
Official Statements & Responses
The agency noted that NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk will monitor Dragon’s arrival. NASA also confirmed that the Dragon capsule will remain attached to the station for about a month before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean in mid-November, returning experiments and hardware for analysis.
Public Visibility and Atmospheric Effects
The predawn launch produced a “space jellyfish” — a luminous plume created when sunlight illuminates the rocket’s exhaust at high altitude while observers below remain in darkness. Residents of Central Florida and New Jersey reported the phenomenon, and the launch’s ascent path was expected to generate sonic booms audible along parts of Florida’s Space Coast. A backup launch window was identified for the following morning, should the primary attempt be aborted.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Source accounts differ on the exact lift-off time: 6:33 a.m., 6:34 a.m., and 6:35 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time are each cited. No source provides a definitive, universally agreed-upon timestamp, and no further clarification has been issued.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Loaded with more than 6,300 pounds of supplies, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” — International Space Station. NASA
- “The space station appears similar to an airplane or a very bright star moving across the night sky, except it does not have flashing lights or change direction. It also moves faster than a typical airplane,” — NASA. All