Home · Science · Oct 9 archive
NASA Advances PRIMA Mission, SpaceX Launches 35th Resupply to ISS
Confirmed
In Short: NASA has advanced the PRIMA mission into Phase B development and SpaceX launched its 35th resupply mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
NASA announced Wednesday that it has advanced the PRIMA mission into Phase B development, a significant step toward launching the space telescope in 2033.
The PRIMA mission, recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in its 2020 Decadal Survey, will study the origins of planets outside the solar system, the growth of galaxies, and the buildup of dust and heavy elements over cosmic history.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center will manage the mission, with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Marshall Space Flight Center serving as partners.
On Tuesday, SpaceX launched its 35th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The mission, CRS-35, carried over 6,300 pounds of supplies and hardware, including experiments designed to take advantage of the space station's microgravity environment.
Dragon, the spacecraft used for the mission, made its fourth flight and is scheduled to dock with the space station on Thursday.
The cargo includes hardware to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity and 3D heart tissue models to advance large-scale drug testing on future space missions.
Additionally, lab-grown human brain tissue will be sent to the space station for a five-week study to compare tissue models that have been in space with those kept on Earth.
The launch also marked the eighth flight for the booster, which previously supported several other missions.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate noted that PRIMA will help scientists understand how planets, stars, black holes, and Earth's water formed.
The mission will extend the agency's fleet survey capabilities and maintain the momentum of flagship missions set by Webb and Roman.
Background
NASA and SpaceX launched the CRS-35 resupply mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
NASA has advanced the PRIMA mission into Phase B development and SpaceX launched its 35th resupply mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
What's confirmed
- ORLANDO, Fla. - NASA and SpaceX launched an early morning resupply mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to the International Space Station on Tuesday.
- CRS-35 is flying under NASA’s second Commercial Resupply Services contract.
- NASA says a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the company’s 35th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, carrying more than 6,300 pounds of supplies and hardware.
- Autonomous docking with the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module is scheduled for Thursday SpaceX launched a Dragon CRS-35 cargo mission for NASA to the International Space Station on Tuesday.
What's still developing
- Goddard manages the Explorers Program, NASA’s oldest continuous program, which has launched more than 100 missions since Explorer 1 in 1958.
- If PRIMA clears that review, NASA will cap its project cost at $1.2 billion, excluding launch and other non-project costs.
- Phase B advances preliminary design and technology development, and a confirmation review of technical, programmatic and cost performance will determine whether the mission is ready for Phase C implementation.
- NASA selected PRIMA after evaluating Probe Explorer concept studies on their scientific merit, the feasibility of their cost and schedule plans and their use of technologies that could support future large missions.
- The space telescope is the first mission in Probe Explorers, a new class of astrophysics missions within NASA’s Explorers Program.
- NASA has taken the next step in the process of developing a new all-glass telescope for the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, a space observatory designed to detect ripples in space-time called gravitational waves.
- On September 23rd, NASA announced its first selection in a new class of astrophysics missions called Probe Explorers.
- The glowing, tentacled cloud that spread across the predawn sky this morning had a scientific mission behind it.
- Fla. — SpaceX crews are preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Space Coast.
- Lab-grown human brain tissue, a machine designed to print artificial eye retinas layer by layer, and the final set of solar arrays the International Space Station will ever need are all riding inside the capsule, according to reporting from India Today.