Watch SpaceX launch 6,500 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station today

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SpaceX will launch its Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station this evening (May 12), and you can watch the action live.

The robotic Dragon is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida today at 7:16 p.m. EDT (2316 GMT).

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency. Coverage will start at 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT).

The launch will kick off the CRS-34 mission, so named because it will be the 34th flight SpaceX conducts for NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program.

Dragon is loaded up with about 6,500 pounds (2,950 kilograms) of supplies, hardware and scientific experiments for CRS-34. Among the scientific gear are "a project to determine how well Earth-based simulators mimic microgravity conditions, a bone scaffold made from wood that could produce new treatments for fragile bone conditions like osteoporosis, and equipment to evaluate how red blood cells and the spleen change in space to protect future astronauts," NASA officials wrote in a CRS-34 media advisory.

This stuff will get to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (May 14) around 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT), when Dragon docks autonomously to the forward port of the orbiting lab's Harmony module. You can watch this rendezvous live as well when the time comes.

The capsule will stay attached to the ISS for just a month, coming back down to Earth in mid-June "with time-sensitive research and cargo, ahead of splashing down off the coast of California," NASA officials wrote.

Dragon is the only ISS resupply ship that can haul material down to Earth. The other three operational robotic freighters — Japan's HTV-X, Russia's Progress and Northrop Grumman's Cygnus — are all designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere when their time in orbit is up.

If all goes according to plan today, the Falcon 9's first stage will come back to Earth for a landing at Cape Canaveral a little less than eight minutes after liftoff. It will be the sixth liftoff and touchdown for this particular booster, according to SpaceX.

Dragon will separate from the rocket's upper stage about 9.5 minutes after launch and then begin chasing down the ISS.

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Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.