NASA plans to send the final set of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays on SpaceX CRS-35, a cargo mission targeted for October 13 in the agency’s October 7 announcement.
The Dragon spacecraft is due to carry more than 6,300 pounds of supplies. A Falcon 9 rocket would launch it from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on SpaceX’s 35th commercial resupply flight to the station for NASA.
Alongside the solar arrays, the payload includes hardware for manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity and 3D heart tissue models intended to support larger-scale drug testing on future missions.
Other cargo will support studies of how a new type of glass forms in microgravity. Brain organoids aboard the flight could help researchers identify treatment targets for neurodegenerative diseases.
The October 7 plan calls for Dragon to dock autonomously at the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module on October 15. Launch and arrival schedules are subject to operational changes.
NASA plans to stream the launch and docking, with viewing options on NASA Live and countdown updates on its International Space Station blog.
Dragon is scheduled to stay until mid-November, then bring time-critical research and cargo back to Earth for a splashdown off California.
