SpaceX launched its eighteenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-18) to the International Space Station at 6:01 p.m. on 25 July 2019 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage returned to land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station approximately eight-and-a-half-minutes after launch. The stage previously flew in support of the CRS-17 mission.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting the CRS-18 mission previously supported the CRS-6 mission in April 2015 and the CRS-13 mission in December 2017. The Dragon spacecraft is filled with more than 5,100 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur onboard the orbiting laboratory.

Dragon will return to Earth with more than 3,300 pounds of cargo after an approximately four-week stay at the International Space Station. About five hours after Dragon leaves the space station, it will conduct its deorbit burn, which lasts up to 10 minutes. It takes about 30 minutes for Dragon to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.