CRS-34 Cargo Dragon LAUNCHED — May 15 at 6:05 p.m. EDT, Booster B1096 Lands at LZ-40, Dragon C209 En Route to ISS Harmony (SpaceX's 58th Orbital Mission of 2026, 611th Booster Recovery)

SpaceX successfully launched CRS-34 Cargo Dragon on May 15, 2026, at 6:05 p.m. EDT (22:05 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — the third launch attempt after consecutive weather scrubs on May 12 (T-4 min abort) and May 13 (T-30s abort). Falcon 9 booster B1096 (6th flight — previously flew IMAP, GPS III-9, NROL-77, Kuiper Falcon 01, and Starlink 6-87) completed a Return-to-Launch-Site landing at Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40) approximately 7.5 minutes after liftoff, marking SpaceX's 611th cumulative Falcon booster recovery. Dragon capsule C209 (6th flight — previously flew CRS-22, CRS-24, CRS-27, CRS-30, CRS-32) separated approximately 9.5 minutes into the mission and is now en route to the ISS on a ~36-hour autonomous transit. The spacecraft carries approximately 6,500 pounds (2,950 kg) of cargo for the Expedition 74 crew: time-sensitive biological science experiments, crew supplies, and hardware including materials for ongoing ISS maintenance. Dragon C209 is scheduled to autonomously dock with the ISS Harmony module's forward port at approximately 7:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday, May 17, 2026. CRS-34 is SpaceX's 58th orbital mission of 2026 and the company's 34th operational cargo resupply delivery to the ISS under the NASA CRS-2 contract. The CRS-34 capsule is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-June 2026 with a Pacific Ocean splashdown off the California coast.