CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – NASA has given SpaceX an official agreement to launch its next crew mission to the International Space Station.
This mission, called Crew-2, will explode on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:11 a.m. EST (1011 GMT) Thursday morning (April 22nd) from historic Pad 39A and NASA’s Florida Kennedy Space Center. It will be the second flight of this Dragon Crew. The capsule, called the “Endeavor,” first transported NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the space station last year for the Demo-2 test flight.
It will also be the second flight for the first rappelling stage, which previously transported Crew-1 astronauts to the space station on November 18, 2020. In connection with the Dragon will be four veteran crew members: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA) and astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon marks the third different spacecraft for both Hoshide and Kimbrough, while the duo followed in the footsteps of JAXA’s 1st crew astronaut Soichi Noguchi. (Noguchi became the first astronaut to fly in three different spacecraft – the space shuttle, the Soyuz and now the Crew Dragon – when it launched in November 2020.)
Last week, NASA and SpaceX met for a flight readiness analysis to get over the spacecraft and launch the vehicle to make sure both were certified and ready to fly later this week. The teams went through their checklists and left only a minor issue to solve before takeoff.
One of these problems was how much liquid oxygen is loaded on the launch vehicle. Falcon 9 relies on two components to power its space travel: liquid rocket kerosene and liquid oxygen.
According to Bill Gerstenmaier, current vice president of flight construction and reliability at SpaceX (and former head of human spaceflight at NASA), said at a news conference on Thursday (April 15th) that the teams detected a small discrepancy in the amount of oxygen liquid loaded into the launcher compared to the amount SpaceX had been waiting for.
On Tuesday (April 20th), Benji Reed, the chief director of human spaceflight at SpaceX, said the liquid oxygen problem had been resolved and that Falcon and Dragon had passed two major tests over the weekend: a static fire test and a rehearsal with crew. Both exercises were performed flawlessly, and the mission received the green light to continue takeoff on Thursday morning.
“It’s a very exciting time and we look forward to a successful mission,” Reed said at a news conference Tuesday (April 20th).
Eyes on the sky
Forecasters from the 45th Space Wing Meteorological Squadron request on Thursday a favorable chance of 80% takeoff in the preceding hours. The only cause for concern at the launch site is takeoff winds. It was very rainy here on the space coast in the days following the launch, but fortunately a high pressure system will be installed on Wednesday and that should eliminate the storms, weather officer Brian Cisek told a news conference. Tuesday.
The team at the 45th Space Wing monitors a set of 10 weather constraints on launch day, plus any additional constraints set by the specific launch provider. These include electric field rules, thick cloud rules, and the potential for cumulus clouds, to name a few. But SpaceX also has its own set of constraints that deal with the amount of precipitation through which the rocket can fly and things like higher level winds.
But that’s not all. SpaceX must also monitor ocean conditions in the landing area to ensure that the amplifier can land safely on the drone ship. If this was not complex enough, because there are astronauts aboard this Dragon, NASA has its own conditions that take into account the weather at different abortion points throughout the ascent of the Dragon into orbit.
In the photos: the amazing launch of the SpaceX Dragon Crew in-flight abortion test
Crew Dragon is equipped with a launch evacuation system, which will push the spaceship to safety in case something probably goes wrong with the rocket as it climbs into space. All these factors together form the weather constraints for this mission and other commercial missions of the crew.
If everything goes as planned, and the weather continues to look good, then we can look for a takeoff before noon on Thursday morning. Cisek says there is a backup opportunity on Friday morning and the weather looks just as promising.
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