![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Crew-3-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHaving completed the Flight Readiness Review for the United States Crew Vehicle 3 (USCV-3) mission, NASA, ESA, JAXA, and SpaceX teams have given the green light for Crew-3 to launch on October 31 at 02:21 EDT (06:21 UTC) and for Crew-2 to return to Earth no earlier than November 4. <\/p>\n
Crew-3 will mark SpaceX\u2019s fifth crewed mission and their third operational crew flight to the International Space Station (ISS). If this launch window is met, the crew will dock with the ISS on November 1 at 00:10 EDT (04:10 UTC).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Flight Readiness Review<\/p>\n
Crew-3 is the eighth Crew Dragon mission, following the Pad Abort Test, DM-1, In-Flight Abort, DM-2, Crew-1, Crew-2, and Inspiration4 missions. Crew-3 will launch NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron along with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. The crew will remain on the ISS for roughly six months \u2014 when the Crew-4 astronauts will replace them.<\/p>\n
Originating with NASA during the Space Shuttle era, the FRR, or Flight Readiness Review, is the most important \u201cgo\u201d for launch decision point before the countdown. It has now become an industry standard. For the commercial crew program, NASA mandates that an FRR involving all entities be conducted.<\/p>\n
The review started early on Monday morning, October 25, with the Crew-3 astronauts. NASA started the tradition of opening all FRRs with the crew, helping to ensure that no corners will be cut during the process. As Crew-3 is already SpaceX\u2019s fifth crewed mission, NASA and SpaceX have emphasized the culture of learning from flights, going as far as saying \u201cdon\u2019t ever assume you know what\u2019s going to happen with the vehicle.\u201d These processes help ensure that teams do not get complacent and that the missions are as safe as possible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Crew-3 astronauts during emergency launch pad evacuation training at the Kennedy Space Center in mid-2021. Left to right: Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Matthias Maurer, and Thomas Marshburn. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/p>\n
After the review, teams unanimously polled \u201cgo\u201d to launch to the ISS, where the Crew Dragon Endurance<\/em> will dock to the forward port at IDA-2 on the Harmony module. <\/p>\n Space Shuttle (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n At Monday\u2019s FRR, teams also polled \u201cgo\u201d for the undocking and splashdown, roughly three days after Crew-3\u2019s arrival, of the Crew-2 mission. However, unlike previous Dragon missions, Crew-2 will fly around the ISS upon departure, allowing them to photograph the station from different angles and allow for damage assessments.<\/p>\n Despite polling \u201cgo\u201d, there is one open item that must be closed out before Crew-3 can launch. During the Inspiration4 mission, a urine tube came unglued from the waste tank, which allowed urine to get into the fan system. While this had no impact on the Inspiration4 crew, teams have addressed the problem.<\/p>\n SpaceX welded the tube to the waste tank so it can no longer disconnect. SpaceX has completed all structural analysis and testing of the new design and has sent the data to NASA, which still has to complete its review; once they deem the fix as safe, they will close out the issue.<\/p>\n The fact that teams polled \u201cgo\u201d even with this open item is a show of confidence in the reviews so far and an indication that this issue will be fully wrapped up at the L-2 day Launch Readiness Review.<\/p>\n After noticing this problem on Inspiration4, SpaceX and NASA teams decided to check the Crew-2 Dragon, Endeavour<\/em>. They found that that urine tube had also disconnected on Endeavour<\/em> and had leaked under the floor. However, this problem had not been noticed earlier as Crew-2 only relies on the Waste Management System (WMS) on-board Dragon during free-flight, using the station\u2019s WMS during all other portions of the mission. However, as Inspiration4 used Dragon\u2019s WMS for all three days of its flight, the problem was more apparent.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
\n