The space station will receive a new shipment of supplies this morning (Nov. 5), and you can watch the event live.
A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft laden with 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of food, equipment and experiments will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) today around 10:15 a.m. EST (1415 GMT), if all goes according to plan.
Coverage will run live on NASA+ and, if possible, Space.com will simulcast the events here. NASA’s broadcast will begin at 8:45 a.m. EST (1245 GMT).
SpaceX launched the robotic Dragon aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday night (Nov. 4) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, for a ride to the ISS. It’s the 31st commercial resupply mission for SpaceX on behalf of NASA and is therefore known as CRS-31.
Related: SpaceX’s 30th Dragon cargo mission departs the ISS, splashes down on Earth
The Dragon will dock at the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module, which was occupied with another Dragon spacecraft until recently. Four astronauts moved their Crew Dragon to a different parking spot on the ISS during an hour-long event on Sunday (Nov. 3) to make room for the new arrival.
CRS-31 includes several new experiments targeting investigations such as the solar wind, or the constant stream of charged particles from our sun, as well as investigations about plant growth in microgravity, cold welding of metals and how radiation in space influences the weathering of various materials, according to NASA.
CRS-31 is expected to remain docked at the ISS for about a month. When it departs, it will leave with a new load of research and cargo to splash down off the coast of Florida.
Source link
