SpaceX Delivers Final ISS Solar Arrays and Cutting-Edge Medical Research to Space Station

A Historic Cargo Run to the Orbiting Laboratory

SpaceX launched a fresh shipment of scientific equipment and supplies to the International Space Station on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, sending more than 6,300 pounds of cargo into orbit aboard its Dragon spacecraft. But this was no ordinary resupply run. Tucked inside the capsule alongside crew provisions and hardware was a payload that reads more like a biotech manifest than a space logistics list — and a set of solar panels that will permanently close the book on a years-long power upgrade effort.

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, marking NASA's 35th Commercial Resupply Services mission, known as CRS-35. Once in orbit, Dragon took just over 52 hours to rendezvous and dock with the station's Harmony module, with docking set for Thursday, October 15, monitored by astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk.

Closing the Chapter on ISS Power Upgrades

One of the most significant aspects of CRS-35 is the delivery of the fourth and final pair of Roll-Out Solar Arrays, built by Redwire Space. NASA has been installing these arrays over several missions to supplement the station's original solar panels, which have been operating in space for more than two decades. Each array is designed to generate more than 20 kilowatts of electrical power and operate for more than a decade.

Six iROSA arrays, each generating 20 to 28 kilowatts of electricity, are already installed on the ISS. Once these final arrays are attached during future spacewalks, the station will receive an additional 20 to 30% of power — improving the supply margin to keep the ISS going through its final years and decommissioning, as the original solar arrays that launched with the station are aging and degraded. The final pair is intended to complete the station's power system augmentation and increase available electricity for research and operations, as well as support the station's planned safe, controlled deorbit, with astronauts set to install the arrays during a series of spacewalks planned for later in the fall.

Medical Science Hitching a Ride to Orbit

What makes CRS-35 stand out from the station's routine resupply cadence is the cargo mix. Alongside the usual crew supplies, this flight carries some of the more ambitious biomedical hardware NASA has sent to orbit, aimed squarely at diseases that have little to do with space travel at all. One notable experiment, LambdaVision-1, will test manufacturing artificial retinas in microgravity, producing them one thin layer at a time. Investigators hope that the microgravity environment will enable more uniform, stable layers, improving the retinas' performance. The resulting implants target patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration — retinal diseases that currently have no cure.

The MINDS experiment will study brain organoids in "organoid villages" combining cells from multiple people, meant to better understand inflammation that can lead to neurodegenerative diseases. Investigators hope to identify new treatment targets for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and multiple sclerosis. Prior ISS brain organoid research has already produced actionable medical leads — an earlier series of experiments identified lamivudine as a Rett syndrome treatment, an HIV antiretroviral drug already on pharmacy shelves, a finding that has since entered clinical trials. The Stellar Spheroids experiment will also study how microgravity affects the growth and function of 3D human heart tissue models, with investigators testing whether microgravity can lead to more advanced vascular networks — potentially supporting more realistic disease research and larger-scale drug testing.

What Comes Next

The spacecraft is expected to remain docked until mid-November, when it will depart the station and return to Earth with time-critical research and cargo, splashing down off the coast of California. The science riding home in Dragon's belly — grown, cultured, and shaped in the unique conditions of low Earth orbit — could prove just as valuable as anything launched on the way up.

With the final solar arrays completing a power upgrade campaign years in the making and groundbreaking medical experiments underway, CRS-35 captures exactly what the space station was built for: a platform where human ingenuity, far above the atmosphere, works on problems very much rooted on the ground.