{"id":10563,"date":"2022-04-20T17:15:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T09:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/next-spacex-crew-launch-on-hold-to-wait-for-return-of-private-astronaut-mission\/"},"modified":"2022-04-20T17:15:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T09:15:32","slug":"next-spacex-crew-launch-on-hold-to-wait-for-return-of-private-astronaut-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/next-spacex-crew-launch-on-hold-to-wait-for-return-of-private-astronaut-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Next SpaceX crew launch on hold to wait for return of private astronaut mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> Updated with new Ax-1 undocking and Crew-4 launch dates.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Samantha Cristoforetti inside the Crew Access Arm at Launch Complex 39A early Wednesday for a dress rehearsal. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the <\/span>next<\/span> crew to the International Space Station has been postponed from Saturday, a ripple effect from weather delays in returning a team of commercial astronauts from the outpost back to Earth, NASA officials said Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Axiom Space\u2019s first private astronaut mission, known as Ax-1, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon Endeavour capsule April 8 and docked with the space station April 9, delivering a crew of four non-government crew members to the complex for research experiments, educational and public outreach events, and sightseeing.<\/p>\n

The four-man crew was supposed to depart the space station Tuesday and splash down off the coast of Florida Wednesday. But mission managers extended their stay at the outpost due to persistent bad weather in SpaceX\u2019s recovery zones in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

NASA and Axiom officials announced late Wednesday the earliest the Ax-1 mission could undock from the station is at 8:35 p.m. EDT Saturday (0035 GMT Sunday), leading to a splashdown off the coast of Florida at 1:46 p.m. EDT (1746 GMT) Sunday, weather permitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA and Axiom mission planning prepared for the possibility of additional time on station for the private astronauts, and there are sufficient provisions for all 11 crew members aboard the space station,\u201d NASA said in a statement. \u201cThe Ax-1 crew continues to work through previously planned mission activities. The Ax-1 crew and Dragon spacecraft remain healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The launch date for the next NASA crew mission, designated Crew-4, will hinge on when Ax-1 can depart the station. Crew-4 had been scheduled to launch before dawn Saturday from pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but NASA said Wednesday night that the Crew-4 launch would be delayed to no earlier than Tuesday, April 26, at 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT).<\/p>\n

Backup launch opportunities for Crew-4 are available April 27 and 28, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on the Ax-1 mission currently occupies the docking port needed for arrival of the Dragon Freedom spacecraft with the Crew-4 astronauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Ax-1 departs, space station then has room for Crew-4 to dock,\u201d Lueders tweeted Wednesday afternoon. \u201cWe want a two-day gap after return for data reviews and to prepare for launch and stage recovery assets. We\u2019ll make decisions about a new Crew-4 launch date based only safely executing our plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket was test-fired at 9:26 a.m. EDT (1326 GMT) Wednesday in preparation for the Crew-4 mission. Credit: NASA\/Joel Kowsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the uncertainty in the Crew-4 launch date, SpaceX ground teams and the four astronauts assigned to the flight have continued their preparations at Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Before dawn Wednesday, commander Kjell Lindgren, pilot Bob Hines, and mission specialists Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti put on their custom-fitted SpaceX pressure suits and rode Tesla SUVs from the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy to pad 39A.<\/p>\n

The astronauts rode the elevators up the launch pad tower and walked across the crew access arm to the white room, where they climbed through the Dragon spacecraft\u2019s side hatch and took their seats in the capsule. The crew then disembarked from the spacecraft to complete a so-called \u201cdry dress rehearsal,\u201d which provided an opportunity for the astronauts and support teams to practice for launch day.<\/p>\n

Later Wednesday morning, SpaceX filled the Falcon 9 rocket with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants for a test-firing of the first stage\u2019s Merlin main engines. The engines fired for about seven seconds at 9:26 a.m. EDT (1326 GMT) as hydraulic clamps kept the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket on the ground.<\/p>\n

SpaceX then drained the Falcon 9 of propellants, and engineers began reviewing data from the test-firing to make sure all rocket, spacecraft, and ground systems functioned as expected.<\/p>\n

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SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Freedom spacecraft on pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch will be SpaceX\u2019s seventh human spaceflight mission, and the fourth operational crew rotation flight to the space station under contract with NASA. SpaceX\u2019s other crew missions have included a test flight for NASA in 2020, and two purely commercial flights \u2014 the Inspiration4 mission last September and the Axiom private astronaut mission currently at the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 booster for the Crew-4 mission will be flying for the fourth time. The rocket stage \u2014 designated B1067 \u2014 previously launched a Dragon cargo mission, NASA\u2019s Crew-3 astronaut flight, and the Turksat 5B communications satellite last year.<\/p>\n

The booster originally assigned to the Crew-4 mission \u2014 tail number B1069 \u2014 was damaged during a landing attempt on a SpaceX drone ship Dec. 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA and SpaceX jointly select primary and backup first stage boosters ahead of each crewed mission,\u201d a NASA spokesperson said. \u201cWe jointly agreed to use the back-up booster for Crew-4 following an asymmetrical landing of the originally planned booster due to high sea states.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crew Dragon spacecraft awaiting launch on top of the Falcon 9 rocket is the fourth, and likely final, reusable Dragon crew capsule to join SpaceX\u2019s fleet. The Dragon Freedom spacecraft joins Endeavour, Resilience, and Endurance in SpaceX\u2019s rotation of crew capsules.<\/p>\n

Once the Crew-4 mission is off the ground, the Dragon Freedom spacecraft will ferry Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti to the space station for a planned five-month stay. They will replace the outgoing Crew-3 astronauts, who have been at the station since November.<\/p>\n

The Crew-3 astronauts currently live on the space station with the four Ax-1 commercial astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts, giving the research lab a complement of 11 crew members, at least for the short term. The station is typically staffed by seven crew members.<\/p>\n

The delay in the Ax-1 mission\u2019s return to Earth and the launch of Crew-4 could also extend the mission of the Crew-3 astronauts, who were scheduled to depart the station in SpaceX\u2019s Dragon Endurance spacecraft April 30.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated with new Ax-1 undocking and Crew-4 launch dates. Astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Samantha Cristoforetti inside the Crew Access Arm at Launch Complex 39A early Wednesday for a dress rehearsal. Credit: SpaceX The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the next crew to the International Space Station has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}