SpaceX launched its thirty first resupply mission to the Worldwide House Station on Monday evening.

The mission, dubbed Industrial Resupply Companies-31 (CRS-31) ferried greater than 6,000 kilos of cargo and science experiments to the orbiting outpost. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complicated 39A (LC-39A) occurred at 9:29 p.m. EST (0229 UTC).



The Cargo Dragon spacecraft, C208, made its fifth journey to the ISS. It beforehand flew on CRS-21, 23, 25 and 28. It’s going to take about 13 hours after liftoff to achieve the house station.

It bought an preliminary increase from the Falcon 9 first stage booster, B1083. It too made its fifth flight after beforehand launching Crew-8 for NASA, Polaris Daybreak for the Polaris Program and two Starlink missions (Group 6-48 and Group 6-56).

Practically eight minutes after liftoff, B1083 returned to Florida for a landing at Touchdown Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral House Power Station accompanied by a sonic increase. It marked the forty sixth booster touchdown at LZ-1 and the 362nd booster touchdown so far.

The mission got here a day after SpaceX scrubbed a deliberate Starlink launch on Sunday as a consequence of a primary stage helium challenge, the fuel used to pressurize the primary propellant tanks in addition to enable for stage separation. Throughout a prelaunch media teleconference, Jared Metter, SpaceX’s director of flight reliability, stated that the difficulty was on the bottom system aspect at House Launch Complicated 40 (SLC-40) and had no bearing on the CRS-31 mission launch.

The launch was additionally a benchmark for SpaceX’s Falcon program. It marked the 400 Falcon rocket launched so far, which consisted of 389 Falcon 9 rockets and 11 Falcon Heavy rockets. This was additionally the 104th Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2024.

In a post-launch publish on X,  previously Twitter, Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice chairman of launch, acknowledged that given a summer time highlighted by a number of anomalies and setback (each weather-related and technical), SpaceX would fall wanting its preliminary 2024 objective of 144 orbital launches.

Congrats to the @SpaceX workforce on our four-hundredth Falcon launch!!!

Whereas we won’t make our unique objective of 144 launches, we’re nonetheless focusing on 30 extra launches in 2024 (~one each two days). It won’t be simple and our work is minimize out for us, however the workforce is all in. The one means…

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) November 6, 2024

Welding provides, moss and photo voltaic wind displays

In line with NASA, the SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft had 5,368 kilos (2435 kg) of pressurized cargo together with a 721 pound (327 kg) payload in its trunk.

The overwhelming majority of what’s heading as much as the orbiting outpost is numerous parts for science experiments and expertise demonstrations for NASA, college researchers, non-public corporations and dozens of scholar teams.

Nestled contained in the trunk of the Dragon is a tool known as CODEX (COronal Diagnostic EXperiment), which is a photo voltaic coronagraph designed to check the formation and impacts of photo voltaic wind. Jeffrey Newmark, a analysis astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Heart stated the machine can be unpacked and put in utilizing the Canadarm-2 robotic arm.

“We’ve developed on the bottom three key applied sciences that we’re testing now in house. First is our precise coronagraph design. Coronagraph is the instrument that blocks the Solar. There have been earlier coronagraphs which have flown in house, however we’ve a brand new design to actually reduce the stray gentle and actually optimize the faint options that we’re on the lookout for,” Newmark stated. “Subsequent, we’ve developed a polarization digital camera, a specialised digital camera that may have a look at the sunshine and separate the polarized half, the sunshine that’s targeted at us, in numerous instructions. And this replaces earlier missions which have had a really, very advanced mechanism. So, this can be a actually simpler, cheaper and higher option to do it.

“Lastly, the true breakthrough for this mission… this would be the first time that we’ve measured all three of those key properties: the density, the temperature and pace of the photo voltaic wind on the identical time. And we’re doing this globally.”

The CODEX experiment is designed to function for at the very least six months as soon as it’s put in onto the zenith (space-facing) aspect of the Specific Logistics Provider 3 on the ISS. Newmark stated they may even be opening the information to the general public and placing it on a group web site for huge use.

Supplies for a so-called “chilly welding” experiment known as Nanolab Astrobeat are additionally onboard the Dragon on behalf of Voyager House and its analysis accomplice, Malta Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Expertise. The experiment is designed to additional the choices for repairing the hulls of spacecraft following the impacts of micrometeoroids.

“The take a look at rig is ready to simulate the hull breach by way of crack and opening and is able to making use of the restore patch and monitoring its efficiency. The 2-patch utility methods are examined in orbit. One is aluminum, and the opposite is copper,” NASA wrote. “Upon activation, one of many 4 chambers of the payload releases the strain within the spring and collides two items of metallic collectively (both aluminum or copper) to carry out chilly welding. A digital camera captures the activation of the chamber for affirmation.”

The Astrobeat pc additionally accommodates musical compositions from Grammy-nominated cellist and composer Tina Guo and producer Steve Mazzaro. NASA stated these can be “streamed from the house station to the Worldwide Astronautical Congress in October in Milan and to Abu Dhabi.”

Additionally onboard is the ARTEMOSS experiment, which is pronounced equally to “Artemis” in a nod to NASA’s Moon-bound program. The acronym stands for “From Antarctica to House: Molecular Response and Physiological Adaptation of Moss to Simulated Deep House Cosmic Ionizing Radiation and Spaceflight Microgravity.”

The experiment is a collaboration between NASA, the SETI Institute and the College of Florida. It makes use of a sort of moss present in Antartica, known as Ceratodon purpureus, and seeks to be taught extra about how some varieties of vegetation are higher capable of thrive in situations highlighted by each cosmic radiation and microgravity.

“Not solely is moss gravity-sensing system, however moss is essentially the most tolerant of radiation amongst vegetation,” stated Dr. Agata Zupanska, a analysis scientist on the SETI Institute throughout a prelaunch briefing hosted by the ISS Nationwide Laboratory. “It cannot solely survive, however actually thrive below doses and energies of radiation which can be deadly to different vegetation. And we introduced this slightly bit additional as a result of we chosen Antarctic moss.”

She stated the sensible utility of this analysis can be studying extra about defend different vegetation for deep house exploration to the Moon and Mars.

“What I imagine we are going to be taught from ARTEMOSS is that not solely the vegetation, some vegetation, at the very least moss, are able to repairing regardless of the harm is brought on by the radiation. They’ll do it within the lowered gravitational atmosphere,” Zupanska stated. “We hope to actually discover the mechanisms and the processes that do work and make a plant tolerant of these two environments (cosmic radiation and microgravity).”

The ISS Nationwide Lab is sponsoring greater than 25 experiments flying to the house station on this mission, together with ARTEMOSS and the Nanolab Astrobeat. One other such experiment is one designed to additional understanding of protein crystallization from Bristol Myers Squibb in partnership with Redwire House.

“Protein crystallization is a means for us to have the ability to higher perceive our crystal buildings, stabilize our proteins and develop suspension formulations to allow at-home use by means of subcutaneous administration, as an alternative of getting to go to an infusion middle,” stated Robert Garmise, the director of formulations improvement and exploratory biopharmaceuticals at Bristol Myers Squibb in an ISS Nationwide Lab-produced video.

“The Redwire {hardware}, the Pillbox, permits us to deal with natural solvents on the Worldwide House Station, that are required for the crystallization of our small molecule.”

🚀✨ This mission patch highlights the teamwork between Bristol Myers Squibb (@bmsnews) , @RedwireSpace, @ISS_CASIS, and @NASA for the #CRS31 launch! With over a dozen PIL-BOX experiments heading to the ISS, we’re advancing pharmaceutical analysis in house to deliver… pic.twitter.com/sxGRohIaVy

— Redwire House (@RedwireSpace) November 4, 2024

The CRS-31 mission may even launch 39 student-led tasks as a part of the Pupil Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). Amongst these are an eighth-grade experiment from California on the results of microgravity on spinach, a Twelfth-grade experiment from Ohio on the hydration impacts of Liquid I.V. in microgravity and a Tenth-grade experiment inspecting worms as a attainable eco-friendly pest management in house.

Greater than science

Among the many supplies on board not explicitly for science are 377 kilos (171 kg) of spacewalk tools. For a wide range of causes all year long, NASA has not been capable of full a spacewalk from the ISS since NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara’s practically 7-hour mission on Nov. 1, 2023.

Tracy Dyson and Michael Barratt have been suited up for a spacewalk on June 24, however following depressurization, a water leak within the cooling unit of Dyson’s swimsuit prompted it to be cancelled earlier than they left the airlock.

The Dragon will carry with it an Worldwide Docking Adaptor Planar Reflector Meeting, which helps visiting spacecraft decide their approaching pace, remaining distance and place relative to the ISS. It’s set to be put in throughout an upcoming spacewalk someday in 2025.

Nestled inside the 2,119 kilos (961 kg) of crew provides is a bunch of contemporary meals. With the Thanksgiving vacation arising later this month, there are some particular holiday-related treats as properly.