SpaceX Cargo Mission Delivers Final Pair of Roll-Out Solar Arrays to the Space Station

NASA's SpaceX 35th commercial resupply mission lifted off at 6:33 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 13, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to NASA. The Dragon spacecraft carried more than 6,300 pounds of supplies and hardware to the International Space Station.

Dragon was scheduled to dock autonomously on Thursday, Oct. 15, to the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module, and NASA reported that Dragon docked that day.

The last of the new solar arrays

The cargo includes the final pair of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays. NASA says the arrays will complete the station's power system augmentation, boosting available electricity for research, operations and the station's eventual safe, controlled deorbit. Astronauts are expected to install them during spacewalks planned for later this fall.

Experiments on board

• Hardware to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity, which NASA says could help restore vision for patients on Earth.
• 3D heart tissue models to advance large-scale drug testing on future missions.
• Materials to study how a new type of glass forms in microgravity.
• Brain organoids that could uncover potential treatment targets for neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.