CRS-35 flies this morning at 10:33:44 UTC with brain models and sick crops aboard

CRS-35 science payload — NASA has laid out what its Biological and Physical Sciences division is sending on SpaceX's 35th cargo run to the International Space Station: four investigations, led by small lab-grown models of human brain tissue that will spend five weeks in orbit before being compared with identical samples left on the ground. A crop study infects plants with a fungus to see whether disease moves faster in microgravity, and a long-running survey of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on station surfaces makes its fourth and final planned stay.

This is the cargo on the rocket you may be watching in a few hours, so it is the part of the morning worth knowing beyond the ascent itself. Cargo flights are usually a line in a manifest; this one has a payload list worth reading. Also aboard: the first test of a compact microplate reader already on station, meant to spot antibodies, antigens and proteins in orbit instead of waiting for samples to come home. NASA Science