{"id":11060,"date":"2023-02-21T19:33:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T11:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/multinational-crew-arrives-at-kennedy-space-center-for-launch-preparations\/"},"modified":"2023-02-21T19:33:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T11:33:31","slug":"multinational-crew-arrives-at-kennedy-space-center-for-launch-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/multinational-crew-arrives-at-kennedy-space-center-for-launch-preparations\/","title":{"rendered":"Multinational crew arrives at Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, pilot Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg, and commander Stephen Bowen after their arrival at Kennedy Space Center Tuesday for launch preparations. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an Emirati flew to the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday to begin preparations for launch early Monday on a SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to replace four crew members aboard the International Space Station who are wrapping up a five-month stay.<\/p>\n

Launch had been planned for Sunday, but NASA and SpaceX managers ordered a 24-hour slip during a flight readiness review Tuesday to allow more time to close out a handful of open technical issues. Launch now is targeted for 1:45 a.m. EST Monday.<\/p>\n

Steve Stich, manager of NASA\u2019s commercial crew program, said he expects the open items to be cleared by the end of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we looked at the work remaining to go on the vehicle, getting Dragon and Falcon 9 ready to go, we were a little bit behind on that work and so we need a little bit more time to do that,\u201d he told reporters after the FRR concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking our time each step of the way getting Dragon ready to go, doing the proper analysis, getting Falcon 9 ready to go, and making sure we\u2019ll go fly when we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian engineers hauled a Soyuz rocket and crew ferry ship to the pad, setting the stage for launch to the lab complex Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Three station crew members \u2014 Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio \u2014 had planned to return to Earth next month to wrap up their own six-month station visit. But their Soyuz MS-22 ferry ship was disabled by a presumed micrometeoroid impact December 14 that ruptured a critical coolant line.<\/p>\n

The Russians are launching an unpiloted replacement Soyuz, MS-23, at 7:24 p.m. Thursday to give Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio a fresh Soyuz that will carry them back to Earth in September after nearly a full year in space. They\u2019ll be replaced by the original MS-23 crew, who will fly up on the next Soyuz in the sequence.<\/p>\n

Assuming an on-time launch Thursday, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is expected to carry out an automated rendezvous with the space station, docking at the lab\u2019s upper Poisk module around 8 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

At the same time, SpaceX and NASA will be gearing up to launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket at pad 39A early Monday.<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s crew \u2014 commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates flier Sultan Alneyadi \u2014 landed at the spaceport\u2019s 3-mile-long Launch and Landing Facility runway a few minutes before 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to begin final preparations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had the privilege over the past couple of years of training with an incredible crew,\u201d Bowen, a former submariner and veteran of three shuttle flights, told reporters at the runway. \u201cThey are just the most amazing people. And it\u2019s just an incredible honor to be here. We\u2019re really looking forward to our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

If all goes well, SpaceX will haul the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon out of the company hangar and up to the top of pad 39A Wednesday. Bowen and company plan to don their pressure suits and strap for a dress-rehearsal countdown late Thursday, culminating in a simulated launch early Friday.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, after the crew departs, SpaceX engineers plan to test fire the Falcon 9\u2019s first stage engines, setting the stage for launch Monday. If all goes well, the Crew Dragon will catch up with the space station early Tuesday, docking to the Harmony module\u2019s upper port at 2:29 a.m.<\/p>\n

Standing by to welcome them aboard will be the crew Bowen and company is replacing \u2014 Crew-5 commander Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina \u2014 along with Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio.<\/p>\n

Prokopyev and his crewmates were launched to the station last September and originally planned to spend six months aboard the lab. But on December 14, a presumed micrometeoroid impact resulted in a massive coolant leak.<\/p>\n

After a detailed analysis, Russian engineers concluded the spacecraft could not be relied on to safely carry its three crew members back to Earth without overheating. Instead, engineers worked to ready the Soyuz MS-23 for launch ahead of schedule to replace the damaged MS-22 ferry ship.<\/p>\n

In an unlikely coincidence, a Russian Progress cargo ship docked at the station suddenly lost its coolant February 11, two months after the Soyuz incident. The Progress undocked last Friday and plunged back into the atmosphere Saturday, breaking up as expected over the southern Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Analysis of post-undocking video and photography showed what the Russians concluded may have been another impact, similar to but larger than the one that damaged the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, or possibly the site of a leak caused by some earlier problem after launch.<\/p>\n

In any case, the replacement Soyuz will dock at the same port vacated by the damaged Progress. At that point, all the station crew members once again will have independent lifeboats \u2014 Crew Dragon and Soyuz \u2014 for use in the event of an emergency that might require an immediate evacuation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, pilot Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg, and commander Stephen Bowen after their arrival at Kennedy Space Center Tuesday for launch preparations. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett Two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an Emirati flew to the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday to begin […]<\/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-11060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060"}],"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=11060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}