When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.SpaceX launche its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station today (May 15) after a weather delay.The robotic Dragon lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida today at 6:05 p.m. EDT (2205 GMT).That amounted to a three-day delay; NASA and SpaceX called off attempts planned for both Tuesday (May 12) and Wednesday (May 13) due to weather, then waited until today for the next chance.A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the company’s CRS-34 cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA from Florida on May 15, 2026. | Credit: NASA/SpaceXThe launch kicked off the CRS-34 mission, so named because it’s the 34th flight that SpaceX has conducted for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program.AdvertisementAdvertisementDragon is loaded up with about 6,500 pounds (2,950 kilograms) of supplies, hardware and scientific experiments for CRS-34. Among the scientific gear are “a project to determine how well Earth-based simulators mimic microgravity conditions, a bone scaffold made from wood that could produce new treatments for fragile bone conditions like osteoporosis, and equipment to evaluate how red blood cells and the spleen change in space to protect future astronauts,” NASA officials wrote in a CRS-34 media advisory.This stuff will get to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday (May 17) around 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT), when Dragon docks autonomously to the forward port of the orbiting lab’s Harmony module. You can watch this rendezvous live via NASA when the time comes.CRS-34 is the sixth spaceflight for this particular Dragon capsule — a new record for a SpaceX cargo craft. One of the company’s astronaut-carrying Crew Dragon capsules, named Endeavour, also has six missions under its belt.The Falcon 9’s first stage on the ground shortly after landing on May 15, 2026. | Credit: NASA/SpaceXThe capsule will stay attached to the ISS for just a month, coming back down to Earth in mid-June “with time-sensitive research and cargo, ahead of splashing down off the coast of California,” NASA officials wrote.AdvertisementAdvertisementDragon is the only ISS resupply ship that can haul material down to Earth. The other three operational robotic freighters — Japan’s HTV-X, Russia’s Progress and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus — are all designed to burn up in …
