SpaceX CRS-35 Launches to ISS: Final Solar Arrays and Docking Date (2026)

SpaceX launched its 35th NASA cargo resupply mission in the early hours of Tuesday, October 13, 2026, sending a Cargo Dragon spacecraft loaded with science experiments, crew supplies, and the International Space Station’s final pair of roll-out solar arrays into orbit.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 6:33 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, lighting up the predawn sky along the US East Coast. According to the ISS National Lab, the mission, known as CRS-35, is carrying more than two dozen research payloads sponsored by the lab, alongside station hardware and crew provisions.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the CRS-35 Cargo Dragon to the International Space Station on October 13, 2026 — SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lifts off with the CRS-35 Cargo Dragon on October 13, 2026. Image: NASA

When will CRS-35 dock with the space station?

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock autonomously with the International Space Station at around 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 15, at the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. The spacecraft will remain attached to the station until mid-November, then return to Earth carrying time-critical research results for a splashdown off the coast of California.

The launch came at the end of a busy week for Dragon traffic at the station. NASA’s Crew-12 Dragon departed the ISS and returned to Earth by the morning of Thursday, October 15, and NASA held a joint teleconference on the afternoon of October 13 covering both the crew return and the CRS-35 launch, with speakers from NASA, SpaceX, and the European Space Agency.

The final iROSA solar arrays are on board

Among the roughly 6,500 pounds of cargo riding aboard CRS-35 is the final pair of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs. Once installed, these arrays will complete a multi-year upgrade of the station’s power system, boosting the electricity available for science operations in the station’s remaining years of service.

The arrays are a fitting centerpiece for a resupply flight. The iROSA program has been steadily augmenting the station’s original solar wings since 2021, and this delivery closes out the manifest. For readers who follow the business of orbit, the flight underscores how routine cargo runs have become: SpaceX also recently locked in a $946 million NASA deal for three additional crew flights, according to TeslaNorth.

What science is flying on CRS-35?

The research manifest is one of the most medically ambitious in recent memory, with a heavy emphasis on regenerative medicine and human health:

Artificial retinas in microgravity: hardware for manufacturing retinal tissue in orbit, aimed at restoring vision on Earth.
3D heart tissue models: large-scale cardiac tissue cultures to advance drug testing for future missions.
Brain organoids: neural tissue models that could reveal treatment targets for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.
New glass formation: materials research studying how a novel type of glass forms without gravity-driven convection.
Cancer research: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is growing vascularized cardiac spheroids from human stem cells to study drug-induced heart damage, while the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is testing chemotherapy responses on organoids grown from patient-donated colorectal cancer cells.
Parkinson’s therapies: a National Stem Cell Foundation project is using human neural organoid models to study neuroinflammation tied to neurodegenerative disease.
Wildfire science: a US National Science Foundation-funded project led by UC San Diego will study the particle flows behind catastrophic post-wildfire mudflows and debris flows.
Student science: the winning Genes in Space experiment, founded by Boeing and miniPCR bio, will test in-space protein production, a capability that could prove critical for future Moon and Mars missions.

Why skywatchers got a show

Tuesday’s launch happened about 45 minutes before sunrise on the US East Coast, producing the glowing exhaust-plume effect skywatchers call a jellyfish: the ground below stays dark while sunlight catches the rocket’s exhaust high in the atmosphere, spreading it into a wide luminous cloud. Forecasters in South Carolina said the Falcon 9 should have been visible low in the southeastern sky from areas like the Grand Strand a couple of minutes after liftoff, weather permitting.

The flight also capped a packed week for SpaceX. A Falcon 9 launched 27 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites from Vandenberg on October 12, and on October 10 the company lofted 21 data-transport satellites for the US Space Force’s missile-tracking mesh network after a five-day delay caused by a last-minute countdown abort.

For a space agency balancing an aging station, a commercial crew pipeline, and a growing science backlog, CRS-35 is business as usual in the best sense: another on-time delivery keeping the orbital laboratory running at full power. Readers who track the satellite side of the industry can also see how crowded low Earth orbit is getting in our earlier look at Amazon’s satellite internet plans.

Sources: ISS National Lab, TeslaNorth, Tech-Insider, Space.com

Axee Davies

Axee Davies is the founder of AxeeTech, publishing gaming guides, codes, and Windows how-tos since March 2013. A tech enthusiast for 13+ years — starting with smartphones and Android rooting — he now runs a site that puts out a new guide every day for Roblox players, traders, and Windows users. More about AxeeTech

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