SpaceX CRS-31 Delivered New Supplies to the ISS

Today, SpaceX launched the 31st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission toward the International Space Station (ISS).

At 9:29 p.m. EST on Monday, November 4 (02:29 UTC, November 5), filled with more than 6,000 pounds of supplies, the Cargo Dragon C208 capsule lifted off on top of a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket from the Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA.

Falcon 9 lifts off from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. Credits: SpaceX — *Falcon 9 lifts off from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center carrying CRS-31. Credits: SpaceX*

It is the 31^st SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the orbital laboratory and the 11^th SpaceX launch under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS Phase 2) contract.

The CRS-31 mission marks the fifth flight for both the B1083 Booster, which previously supported the Polaris Dawn mission, and the Dragon C208, the first SpaceX Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft replacing the Dragon 1 capsule.

Mission schedule

After stage separation, the booster safely landed back at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) located at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed at LZ-1 pic.twitter.com/tQ4TJQUwTk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 5, 2024

Later today, the Dragon autonomously docked to the forward connecting port of the space station’s Harmony module at approximately 10:15 a.m. EST (15:15 UTC).

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague monitored the arrival of the spacecraft, which is scheduled to stay docked to the ISS for about one month. Afterward, it will return to Earth with research science, cargo, and hardware, splashing down off the east coast of Florida.

*A Cargo Dragon C208 capsule captured in deep space. Credits: ESA/NASA/T. Pesquet*

During a midday briefing on Nov 4, with NASA and SpaceX representatives, the Director of Flight Reliability at SpaceX – Jared Metter – declared that the Cargo Dragon spacecraft will perform for the first time an ISS boosting demonstration during the period in which it is docked to the space station. All the collected data will be solid and helpful information on SpaceX’s work on the ISS Deorbit Vehicle.

Metter also stated that the Dragon capsule had been deployed from the second stage about 145 seconds earlier than previous Dragon missions and that the reboost burn will be a short 12.5-minute burn.

In conclusion, he anticipated that the helium issue that cropped up during the Starlink 6-77 would have had no impact on the CRS-31 launch since it was a ground-side issue and so isolated to Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40.

The payloads

In addition to supplies, food, and hardware, NASA’s SpaceX CRS-31 mission will deliver new science experiments to the ISS laboratory.

The Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) will be implemented onboard the ISS to investigate and explain the origin behind the extreme quantity of energy involved in the heating and acceleration processes affecting the solar wind phenomenon.

It consists of a solar coronagraph which should be able to detect the temperature and speed of the constant stream of particles that flow through the corona, the Sun’s outer part of the atmosphere.

*CODEX coronagraph undergoing final flight preparation at the NASA KSC Space Station Processing Facility. Credits: CODEX team/NASA*

ARTEMOSS (ANT1 Radiation Tolerance Experiment with Moss in Orbit on the Space Station) uses samples of Antarctic moss, the highest radiation-tolerant plant on Earth, to understand how genetic properties react and recover from the harsh conditions of the deep space environment.

This project’s research deals with studying the effects of combined cosmic ionizing radiation and microgravity on biological systems, and results could lead to the development of innovative bioregenerative life support systems for future space missions.

The Euro Material Ageing, developed by the French Space Agency (CNES), will perform experiments to analyze how certain non-organic and organic materials age while exposed to such a severe environment as deep space.

*Final preparation of the Euro Material Ageing’s experiments for launch. Credits: Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales*

ASTROBEAT proposes a new spacecraft repairing technique

Nowadays the increasing amount of space debris orbiting the Earth represents a real threat to space operations for the community but also a potential risk to spacecraft and the crew.

In this sense, Nanolab Astrobeat proposes the implementation of a new efficient spacecraft repair technique that can be performed from the inside.

*The Nanolab Astrobeat hardware and computer during assembly prior to launch. Credits: Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology/Leonardo Barilaro*

Provided contact forces are sufficiently high since less force is needed to fuse metallic materials in space than on Earth. Astrobeat’s research focuses on cold welding to fix the impact perforations that can be caused by space debris and micrometeoroids in the outer shell of a spacecraft.

This project aspires to show that cold welding could be a quicker and safer way of performing repair procedures and meanwhile could provide a better understanding of the process and the required improvements in its use for future terrestrial applications.