New scientific experiments and supplies delivered to ISS

Above: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:15 a.m. EDT on 21st April 2025, on the company’s 32nd commercial resupply services mission for the agency to the ISS.
Courtesy PRNewsfoto / NASA

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying approximately 6,700 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA, lifted off at 4:15 a.m. EDT Monday, on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Live coverage of the spacecraft’s arrival began today at 6:45 a.m. EDT, on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms.

The spacecraft autonomously docked at approximately 8:38 a.m. to the zenith, or space-facing, port of the space station’s Harmony module.

The resupply mission will support dozens of research experiments during Expedition 73. Along with food and essential equipment for the crew, Dragon is delivering a variety of science experiments, including a demonstration of refined manoeuvres for free-floating robots. Dragon also carries an enhanced air quality monitoring system that could help protect crew members on exploration missions to the Moon and Mars and two atomic clocks to examine fundamental physics concepts, such as relativity and test global synchronisation of precision timepieces.

These are just a sample of the hundreds of investigations conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory each year in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences and Earth and space science. Such research benefits humanity and helps lay the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis campaign, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future missions to Mars.

The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the orbiting laboratory until May, when it will depart and return to Earth with time-sensitive research and cargo, splashing down off the coast of California.

Learn more about the commercial resupply mission at: www.nasa.gov/mission/nasas-spacex-crs-32