Cargo and Research Materials on Board
CRS-31’s return cargo consists of experimental specimens and important tools used for microgravity analysis carried out on the ISS. As per reports, Dragon stays the only operational cargo spacecraft able to safely returning scientific supplies to Earth. Other resupply automobiles, equivalent to Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus and Russia’s Progress spacecraft, expend throughout reentry, disposing of station waste.
The Dragon capsule was launched on November 4 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. It delivered roughly 2,700 kilograms of provides, analysis instruments, and recent meals to help the Expedition 71 astronauts.
Extended Stay of Astronauts
The crew aboard the ISS consists of NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who arrived earlier this yr aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Originally deliberate for an eight-day mission, technical problems with Starliner led to an prolonged keep of practically eight months. Sources state that each astronauts will return to Earth in February 2025 on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
Recovery and Post-Splashdown Research
Following splashdown, NASA will quickly retrieve the Dragon capsule to protect the integrity of time-sensitive experiments. According to reviews, the recovered cargo shall be transported to NASA’s Systems Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center for additional examination. This course of ensures continued analysis on supplies uncovered to the microgravity atmosphere in the course of the mission.
