Tuesday Morning Starter: SpaceX cargo is headed for the station

NASA’s SpaceX cargo mission launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6:33 a.m. Eastern Tuesday, October 13. The Dragon spacecraft carried more than 6,300 pounds of science investigations and cargo on SpaceX’s thirty-fifth station resupply mission for NASA.

NASA reported that Dragon separated from the Falcon 9 rocket about nine minutes after launch and began maneuvers toward the International Space Station. Arrival is scheduled for approximately 11 a.m. Eastern Thursday, October 15; live rendezvous and docking coverage begins at 9:15 a.m. Docking remains a future operation, not a completed event.

There is another science date to put on the calendar. At 4 p.m. Eastern Thursday, NASA plans a streamed briefing on its contributions to Japan's Martian Moons eXploration mission. That event is a mission preview, not a report of a sample already returned from Mars.

For today's commute, use current airline status, FAA airport restrictions and the National Weather Service forecast for your own location. A national morning brief cannot substitute for those local checks. Use the linked official services for the latest information before you leave.

Visual credit NASA S135-E-011867: the International Space Station photographed from Atlantis on July 19, 2011. Public-domain U.S. federal work. FILE PHOTO: ISS, 2011; illustrative station context, not today’s launch.

Sources

• NASA, Mark A. Garcia, launch confirmation, October13,2026,6:54a.m.ET
• NASA, Lauren E. Low, launch advisory, October7,2026
• NASA, Jessica Taveau, MMX briefing advisory, October8,2026
• FAA, current airport status
• National Weather Service, local forecasts
• Photo source and rights