On November 11 at 02:03 UTC, a SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched the SpaceX Crew 3 mission to the International Space Station from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Onboard Crew Dragon Endurance was the usual complement of four astronauts: three rookies from both NASA and ESA as well as an experienced NASA astronaut. NASA’s Raja Chari and Kayla Barron as well as German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer are making their first spaceflights. Joining them is spaceflight veteran Thomas Marshburn who previously flew on the Shuttle and on the Soyuz to the ISS.

This is also the first flight for Crew Dragon C210. It is the latest addition to SpaceX’s fleet of crewed capsules, which now number three vehicles. Previous Crew Dragon capsules have been given names by their first crews and this one is no different. Spacecraft Commander Raja Chari announced that the capsule’s name was Endurance. The name was inspired by one of the ships in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s failed 1914 Antarctic expedition of the same name. The name is also a reference to both the challenge of building the spacecraft and training for the mission during the current pandemic conditions and continues the NASA tradition of naming crewed spacecraft after previous exploration ships.

After just over twenty hours en route to the ISS, Endurance automatically docked to the forward port on Node 2. Two hours after hard docking, the docking adapter was pressurized and leak checks were completed before the hatches between the spacecraft and station were opened. During the welcome ceremony, the new astronauts were given their gold astronaut wings signifying they had crossed above the 100-kilometer Kármán Line and into space.

Crew 3 was delayed several times before finally launching which resulted in Crew 2 having to return before its arrival, instead of having several days of overlap like initially planned. The first delay was because of a storm downrange which could have interfered with capsule recovery in the event of an abort, and the second was because of a “minor medical issue not related to COVID-19”. Fortunately, that medical issue did not result in the crewmember being replaced with their backup. After that, the launch was delayed further due to bad launch weather and also problems with the toilet.

Specifically, a urine leak was discovered on capsule 207 during the Inspiration 4 mission. There is a tube that connects the toilet inside the occupied portion of the spacecraft to the urine storage tank in the bottom of the capsule service section. That tube came loose from the storage tank allowing urine to leak in the service section of the capsule. Urine is corrosive and this leak could have caused damage to essential systems.

The same problem was found in the Crew 2 capsule C206 while on orbit. Not wanting to cause more damage, the crew was forbidden from using the toilet during their return to Earth. To make their trip back a bit more comfortable, the astronauts wore “absorbent undergarments” under their spacesuits. The faulty connection was patched on the ground in the Crew 3 capsule before its launch, but this took several days to complete.

Booster 1067 successfully landed on the droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas stationed about 600 kilometers northeast of the pad in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the booster’s second flight and the third flight of a Crew Dragon on a reused Falcon 9. It was brought back to Port Canaveral by SpaceX’s new support vessel, Doug, the day after the next launch we’re going to tell you about, Starlink 31. 

More Information

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 Launch Delayed from Nov. 3 (NASA)

Crew Dragon Endurance Docked to the Space Station (NASA)

Launch video

Docking video