SpaceX’s 34th Cargo Dragon spacecraft, designated CRS-34, undocked from the International Space Station at 12:05 pm Eastern time on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, beginning its return journey to Earth with a payload of NASA science experiments, biological samples, and hardware gathered during the mission’s month on the station. NASA began livestreaming the departure on NASA+ and the agency’s YouTube channel at 11:45 am.
The mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 15, 2026, delivering approximately 6,500 pounds of cargo to the station. It was the sixth flight of Cargo Dragon C209, the same spacecraft, and used Falcon 9 booster B1096, also on its sixth launch. The reuse of both the capsule and the booster reflects SpaceX’s routine practice of flying hardware multiple times to reduce costs.
Splashdown is scheduled for Wednesday, June 17 at 5:08 pm Pacific time off the coast of California. Recovery teams will retrieve the capsule from the water and transport it to a processing facility, where technicians will unpack the science cargo and transfer time-sensitive biological samples to researchers waiting onshore. NASA does not provide live coverage of cargo mission splashdowns.
The returning science payload includes experiments focused on cell biology in microgravity, plant growth in space, material science samples, and a set of Earth observation instruments that have been collecting data from the station’s orbit. Several of these experiments are part of long-term research programs investigating how extended spaceflight affects living systems at the cellular level.
The departure comes as the ISS faces its own engineering challenges. NASA has been monitoring a worsening air leak in the Zvezda service module’s transfer tunnel, a problem that prompted astronauts to briefly shelter in a docked Crew Dragon in early June while Russian cosmonauts attempted repairs. Roscosmos has since confirmed that the first suspected crack in the transfer tunnel has been sealed, though engineers are still investigating a second potential leak site.
CRS-34 marks the latest in a continuous series of SpaceX commercial resupply missions that began in 2012. The company has delivered cargo to the station on an average of two to three times per year under its Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. A 35th Cargo Dragon mission is expected in late 2026, carrying the next round of science equipment and supplies for the station’s rotating crew.
SpaceX has maintained its commercial crew and cargo operations with the ISS during a period of significant corporate activity, including its recent stock market debut at a $1.77 trillion valuation earlier this month. The company’s science mission work continues independently of its public market activities. Full mission details are available on the NASA CRS-34 mission page.
