SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to undock from the International Space Station on Feb. 26, 2026, at 12:05 p.m. EST, according to NASA. The uncrewed vehicle will carry completed experiments and hardware back through the atmosphere for a splashdown off the California coast later that day, NASA said. The departure marks the final chapter of NASA’s 33rd Commercial Resupply Mission, or CRS-33, and the cargo it brings home could shape how astronauts monitor their health on future deep-space flights.
Undocking Timeline and Splashdown Plan
Dragon will separate autonomously from the station’s Harmony forward-facing port, following a detailed sequence outlined in NASA’s departure coverage, and then begin a roughly 12-hour descent profile that ends with a parachute-assisted ocean landing off the coast of California. The spacecraft originally launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 carrying more than 5,000 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware for the orbiting laboratory. A significant portion of that mass is now returning to Earth in the form of completed experiments and station equipment that researchers need to examine under controlled laboratory conditions, where they can be compared against ground-based reference samples.
Expedition 74 crew members spent the days leading up to departure transferring cargo into Dragon, with NASA noting that astronauts packed numerous investigations for the ride home while still keeping up with ongoing human research. That packing process is not merely logistical busywork. The order in which samples are loaded and the thermal conditions they experience during return can affect how well researchers can analyze them after landing. For biologically sensitive payloads, teams prioritize time-critical containers for rapid recovery and stabilization after splashdown.
Returning Experiments That Could Change Space Medicine
Among the most consequential items aboard Dragon are diagnostic tools designed for blood and biomarker analysis in microgravity. NASA has highlighted the Moon Microscope, a portable diagnostic kit, and a related device called 1DROP, both developed to give crews the ability to run medical tests without a full laboratory. In NASA’s discussion of these extraterrestrial diagnostics, the agency emphasizes that such compact instruments are built to withstand launch loads, operate with minimal consumables, and deliver results that can guide treatment decisions. If the data from their orbital trials confirm reliable performance, these instruments could eventually allow astronauts on Artemis lunar missions or Mars transits to detect infections, monitor organ function, and track physiological changes in real time, far from any hospital.
That capability would address one of the most persistent risks of long-duration spaceflight: the inability to diagnose medical problems quickly when communication delays make Earth-based telemedicine impractical. Instead of waiting for samples to be analyzed on the ground, crews could perform point-of-care testing in the spacecraft, then consult with flight surgeons using data that meet clinical standards. The CRS-33 return cargo also includes biological samples associated with these diagnostic demonstrations, giving researchers a chance to compare in-flight readings with post-flight laboratory analyses. Any discrepancies will help refine both the hardware and the medical protocols that might one day be standard on deep-space vehicles and lunar outposts.
Materials, Manufacturing, and Microgravity Physics
Dragon is also bringing back results from liquid-crystal experiments conducted aboard the station, which help scientists study how these materials behave in microgravity. In microgravity, liquid crystals can form structures that are difficult to sustain on Earth, allowing scientists to isolate surface tension, molecular interactions, and defect dynamics that normally get masked by buoyancy and sedimentation. These studies may seem abstract, but liquid crystals are central to display technology, pharmaceutical delivery systems, and advanced materials engineering, so any new understanding of how they self-organize can feed directly into industrial applications.
In addition to liquid crystals, the CRS-33 return payload includes outputs from 3D printing and bioprinting research that NASA identified as a priority when the mission launched. Printing metals, polymers, and biological constructs in orbit helps engineers evaluate whether future crews could manufacture spare parts, custom tools, or even tissue models far from Earth. By comparing printed items that have spent weeks in weightlessness with control samples produced in terrestrial labs, scientists can assess microscopic structure, mechanical strength, and long-term stability. The findings will inform the design of next-generation manufacturing systems intended for use on commercial space stations and on missions venturing beyond low Earth orbit, where resupply opportunities are rare.
Dragon’s Double Duty as an Orbital Tug
CRS-33 was not a typical cargo run. While docked, the Dragon spacecraft repeatedly fired its thrusters to raise the station’s orbit, a capability that NASA has been testing as an alternative to relying solely on Russian Progress vehicles for altitude maintenance. The most recent of these burns took place on December 29, 2025, lasting more than 19 minutes and measurably increasing the station’s altitude. NASA has said it is using these demonstrations to evaluate how Dragon performs in this role across varying orbital conditions. Engineers track propellant usage, structural loads, and attitude-control behavior to verify that the vehicle can safely provide this service without compromising its primary cargo mission.
The reboost demonstration matters because the ISS constantly loses altitude due to atmospheric drag, and maintaining its orbit is essential to keeping the station operational and accessible for crew rotations and cargo deliveries. Having a second reliable vehicle capable of performing these burns gives NASA operational flexibility, particularly as international partnerships evolve and the station approaches its planned end of life in the early 2030s. Each successful Dragon reboost strengthens the case that commercial spacecraft can handle station-keeping duties that were once the exclusive domain of government-operated vehicles. It also validates mission designs in which a single visiting vehicle can both deliver science, help maintain the complex, and then return high-value research to Earth.
What Comes After Splashdown
Once Dragon splashes down off California, recovery teams will retrieve the capsule and begin the time-sensitive process of extracting biological samples and temperature-controlled experiments. The CRS-33 mission overview from NASA describes the returning cargo as critical science and hardware, a designation that signals priority handling for payloads whose scientific value depends on rapid post-flight processing. Teams on recovery vessels and at shore facilities coordinate closely so that freezers, incubators, and specialized transport containers are ready as soon as the hatch opens. For experiments like the blood-analysis kits and bioprinting outputs, delays of even a few hours can compromise results by allowing cells to change state or samples to drift outside their required temperature ranges.
NASA has indicated that Johnson Space Center will play a central role in managing these operations, with status updates and mission milestones shared through its space station blog as the spacecraft is recovered and cargo is offloaded. From there, many of the investigations will be routed to specialized labs across the United States and to international partners, where scientists will begin months or years of analysis. The data they extract will feed into future mission designs, medical standards for astronauts, and the development of commercial technologies that trace their origins back to experiments in orbit. With CRS-33’s Dragon preparing to close its hatch on the station one final time, the mission is transitioning from an operational phase in space to an equally critical scientific phase on the ground, where its full impact will gradually come into focus.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
