Overview
- SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched Friday at 6:05 p.m. EDT with nearly 6,500 pounds of cargo, and Dragon is due to dock with the Harmony module around 7 a.m. EDT Sunday.
- The load includes more than 50 studies such as a wood-based bone scaffold, checks of microgravity simulators, and instruments to study charged particles and reflected sunlight, along with an 816-kilogram external STP-Houston 11 package for joint NASA and U.S. Space Force research.
- Dragon capsule C209 is flying its sixth mission, the first cargo Dragon to reach that mark, and the Falcon 9 first stage completed its own sixth flight with a landing at Landing Zone 40.
- The launch followed earlier weather scrubs in Florida, including a hold at T-28 seconds when anvil clouds raised the risk of lightning near the pad.
- NASA says Dragon will remain at the station until mid-June before returning time-sensitive experiments and cargo to a splashdown off the California coast.