May 15, 2026 — SpaceX sent an uncrewed Dragon cargo ship toward the International Space Station Friday, carrying roughly 6,500 pounds of supplies, hardware and science gear for about 50 separate investigations.
After weather forced a three-day delay, the Falcon 9 booster lifted off at 6:05 p.m. ET from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and climbed northeast into the station’s orbital path. About two and a half minutes after liftoff the first stage separated and returned to a precision touchdown near the launch gantry, completing its sixth flight. The second stage pushed Dragon to orbit and released the capsule nine minutes and 20 seconds after launch.
The mission marks another milestone in SpaceX’s operational cadence: the company’s 638th Falcon 9 launch since 2010, its 56th launch so far this year and the 611th successful recovery of a booster. It will also be the first Cargo Dragon vehicle to visit the station for a sixth time, a durability milestone highlighted by ISS operations integration manager Bill Spetch.
“We’re sending over 6,000 pounds of hardware, supplies, science experiments and more to our Expedition 74 crew,” Spetch said, noting the shipment includes everything from water purification components to investigations that study space weather.
If all goes according to plan, Dragon will perform an automated rendezvous with the station early Sunday and dock at the forward end of the Harmony module around 7 a.m. ET. Once hatches are opened, members of Crew 12 — commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — will unload the vehicle.
Also aboard the station as part of Expedition 74 are Soyuz MS-28/74S commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
The Cargo Dragon is delivering just over three tons of supplies and equipment. The onboard manifest includes:
– 1,363 pounds of crew clothing, food and other essentials
– More than 1,000 pounds of vehicle hardware
– 282 pounds of spacewalk components
– 186 pounds of computer equipment
– 1,834 pounds of research equipment and samples
Scientists and program officials emphasized the scientific value of the delivery. “The ISS has enabled more than 4,000 different science experiments and technology demonstrations in its 25 years on orbit,” said Liz Warren, deputy chief scientist for the space station program. She noted that more than 5,000 researchers from 110 countries have used the station, and that the orbiting lab helps prepare for Artemis lunar missions and future missions to Mars.
Looking ahead, the station program has several crew and cargo milestones this year. A Soyuz MS-29 crew — Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menon — is scheduled to launch from Baikonur on July 14 to replace members of Soyuz MS-28. A Russian Progress cargo ship is expected in early September, and NASA’s Crew 13, carrying Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, is slated to launch on Sept. 12 to relieve Crew 12. Three additional cargo missions are planned before year’s end, with crew rotation flights resuming in early 2027.
The successful launch and booster recovery underscore SpaceX’s ongoing role in routine station resupply and commercial access to low Earth orbit, while the delivered experiments and equipment will support ongoing research and station operations for the Expedition 74 crew.