SpaceX and NASA are targeting 6:05 p.m. EDT today, Friday, May 15, for the third launch attempt of CRS-34 — a Falcon 9 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying 6,500 pounds of science experiments and crew supplies to the International Space Station after two consecutive weather scrubs. Among the payloads are experiments with direct implications for the estimated one in three women and one in five men over 50 worldwide who live with osteoporosis, and for the grid operators and satellite operators whose infrastructure is threatened by poorly understood geomagnetic storms.
The launch comes two days after the House Appropriations Committee on May 13 advanced a spending bill that partially restores NASA's science budget — but still imposes a 17 percent cut to the Science Mission Directorate — underscoring the political tension surrounding the station's research program even as another cargo run prepares to lift off.
Two Weather Scrubs Before Today's Window
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast only a 35 percent chance of acceptable conditions for the May 12 attempt. A slow-moving cold front across Florida drove the odds lower, and teams scrubbed the first try at 4:26 p.m. before fueling began. The May 13 backup window looked more promising — forecasters revised the odds up to 95 percent with roughly a minute remaining on the clock — but the countdown was halted at the T-minus 30-second mark after a violation of the cumulus cloud rule. Today's third attempt is the current primary target.
Booster B1096, on its sixth flight, will attempt a return to Landing Zone 40 — adjacent to the launch pad at SLC-40 — approximately eight minutes after liftoff. A successful recovery would mark the 74th booster landing SpaceX has achieved across its three pads since 2015. Cargo Dragon spacecraft C209, also on its sixth mission (a record for a SpaceX cargo vehicle), is scheduled to autonomously dock with the Harmony module's forward port on Sunday, May 17, at approximately 7:00 a.m. EDT.
NASA and the U.S. Space Force Launch a New Space-Weather Early-Warning Tool
The most consequential payload for infrastructure operators on Earth may be STORIE (Storm Time O+ Ring current Imaging Evolution), a NASA–U.S. Space Force instrument developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center that will be robotically installed on the exterior of the station's Columbus module within days of arrival.
"These particles have important space weather impacts," said Alex Glocer, STORIE's principal investigator at Goddard. "We want to understand how that trapped population is built up, and where it comes from."
The instrument targets the ring current, a doughnut-shaped band of charged particles encircling Earth roughly 10,000 to 65,000 kilometers above the surface. When solar storms disturb this region, the resulting geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) can saturate power-grid transformers and damage satellite electronics. STORIE will observe the ring current using neutral atom imaging to generate an inside-out map of its composition and dynamics — data that could improve the geomagnetic storm forecasts that grid operators use to prepare their equipment.
A Rattan-Wood Bone Scaffold Heading to Orbit — and Potentially to Orthopedic Clinics
The Green Bone investigation sends to the station a scaffold fabricated from rattan wood by Italian firm GreenBone Ortho — a material whose internal pore structure closely mimics human trabecular bone. Through a patented biomorphic transformation process, the wood's lignin and cellulose are stripped away and replaced with hydroxyapatite, the mineral that constitutes natural bone, preserving the original three-dimensional architecture.
Microgravity induces bone density loss of roughly 1 to 2 percent per month in astronauts, even with consistent exercise regimens — an accelerated model of the skeletal deterioration seen in osteoporosis patients on Earth. The experiment will test whether GreenBone's scaffold can support osteoblast adhesion and differentiation in that hostile environment. If it can, the finding strengthens the case for human clinical trials of a scaffold technology that, according to International Osteoporosis Foundation data, affects one in three women and one in five men over 50 worldwide.
SPARK Studies How Spaceflight Destroys Red Blood Cells
The SPARK investigation examines how red blood cells and the spleen change in microgravity. Spaceflight-associated anemia — in which astronauts' red blood cell counts fall during missions — has been documented since early spaceflight but remains incompletely understood. SPARK seeks to identify whether the spleen accelerates red-blood-cell destruction in low gravity and, if so, by what mechanism. The findings carry relevance for planning long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars, where astronaut health cannot be managed with a rapid medical evacuation.
NASA's Science Budget Is Shrinking as the Station's Research Calendar Fills
CRS-34 lands in a politically turbulent moment for NASA. The White House's FY2027 budget proposal, released April 3, would cut NASA science funding by 47 percent — from roughly $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion — and trim $1.1 billion from ISS operations, citing the station's scheduled retirement in 2030 and the administration's stated priority of accelerating commercial successors.
"This budget request should be ignored," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Science Committee, in a statement issued April 3. Rep. George Whitesides, vice ranking member on the same committee, said the proposal "would end critical missions, dramatically scale back the workforce, and risk our scientific leadership around the globe."
On May 13 — the same day SpaceX scrubbed CRS-34's second launch attempt — the House Appropriations Committee advanced a competing bill that holds NASA's overall budget flat but still cuts the Science Mission Directorate by 17 percent. The bill restores funding for several missions the White House had proposed canceling, including the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and OSIRIS-APEX, but does not resolve the broader uncertainty over the station's post-2030 successor. The Senate is expected to release its own proposal in June.
The White House's position — that the ISS budget should shrink "given its looming retirement" — is contested by researchers who note that the station's scientific productivity is accelerating, not declining, and that missions like those aboard CRS-34 represent years of development investment that cannot be quickly replicated on commercial platforms whose timelines remain uncertain.
Dragon Returns to Earth in Mid-June with Time-Sensitive Samples
Dragon C209 will remain docked at the station for approximately one month before departing with completed experiments — including live biological samples that require rapid return to Earth-based laboratories. Dragon is currently the only ISS resupply vehicle capable of returning cargo to the surface; the other three active robotic freighters — Japan's HTV-X, Russia's Progress, and Northrop Grumman's Cygnus — are designed to burn up on reentry. The capsule will splash down off the California coast, with the exact date contingent on the ISS schedule and handover logistics.
If today's launch proceeds as planned, CRS-34 will become the 56th Falcon 9 flight of 2026 and the fifth ISS resupply mission of the year. For readers whose daily life depends on reliable power grids and satellite connectivity — which is to say, nearly everyone — the experiments aboard are not abstract science: they are early research steps toward better warning systems against solar storms that can knock out transformers, and toward bone-regeneration treatments that could one day reach orthopedic clinics. Whether that pipeline of ISS-enabled research survives the congressional budget fight now underway will determine how much of that work is ever completed. Live coverage begins on NASA+ at 5:45 p.m. EDT; the launch window opens at 6:05 p.m.
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