CAPA CANAVERAL, Florida – SpaceX and NASA delayed the next launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station by 24 hours due to unfavorable weather conditions along the flight path.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket have been scheduled to launch the mission, called Crew-2, early Thursday (April 22) from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here in Florida. But today, NASA announced a one-day delay, citing bad weather along the rocket’s flight path. Instead, SpaceX is now aiming for a launch on Friday (April 23rd). The disconnect is set for 5:49 am EDT (0949 GMT).
“I’m sure you’ve heard that you’ve probably heard that it’s going to be a day late,” Bob Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, told reporters in a morning briefing. “We won’t be able to launch tomorrow morning.”
“Although the weather will probably look great here at the launch site, we are worried about the height of the wind and waves in the case of abortion,” he added.
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Crew Dragon is equipped with a special launch exhaust system that allows the vehicle to push the crew safely in an emergency during the ascent. As such, the weather team on the 45th space wing must monitor not only the weather at the launch site, but also the weather along the rocket’s trajectory, as well as any potential landing sites that the capsule could sprinkle them in the unlikely event of a flight abortion.
On Tuesday, weather launch officer Brian Cisek, the 45th Space Wing, told Space.com that the weather shows very favorable for launch, with conditions improving to 90% favorable on Friday. Cisek said this was due to a high pressure front moving in the area and pushing the storms that affected the space coast earlier in the week.
“As soon as this front moves, it will be absolutely beautiful on Friday morning,” Cabana said. “So we’ll launch then.”
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Dragon International Crew includes NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Ahkihiko Hoshide. They will stay on the station for six months, driving a a multitude of research experiments before returning home later this year.
If Friday’s launch is scheduled, Crew-2 astronauts will be trapped in the Dragon’s capsule early Friday morning and arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday at 5:10 AM EDT (0910 GMT). The Crew-2 astronauts will join seven other crew members who are already aboard the space station, including the four astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission for NASA, who are due to return to Earth on April 28.
SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with billions of dollars in contracts to fly astronauts for NASA. (The other company is Boeing, which has not yet flown astronauts.) Crew-2 is SpaceA’s third manned flight for NASA since the launch of Crew-1 in November 2020 and a Demo-2 mission in May 2020.
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