Hurricane Ian has pushed the launch of SpaceX’s subsequent astronaut mission for NASA again by no less than a day.
SpaceX and NASA had been planning to launch the Crew-5 flight to the Worldwide House Station on Oct. 3 from Pad 39A at Kennedy House Heart (KSC) in Florida. However the specter of Ian, which is at present churning north towards Florida as a strong Class 3 hurricane, has delayed the deliberate liftoff by no less than 24 hours, to Oct. 4. And that schedule is way from set in stone.
“Mission groups will proceed to observe the impacts of Ian on the House Coast and NASA’s Kennedy House Heart in Florida and will regulate the launch date once more, as obligatory,” NASA officers wrote in an replace right now (opens in new tab) (Sept. 27).
In footage: Wonderful launch photographs of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission
The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule that may fly on Crew-5 are secure inside SpaceX’s hangar at Pad 39A, NASA officers added in right now’s replace.
If present plans maintain, the Crew-5 astronauts will arrive at KSC from NASA’s Johnson House Heart in Houston on Friday (Sept. 30). Rollout of the Falcon 9 and Dragon to the launch pad will happen round that very same time, supplied the climate is sweet sufficient for a possible Oct. 4 liftoff. A backup date is on the market on Oct. 5.
Crew-5 will ship NASA astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) for a five-month keep. It is going to mark the primary time a cosmonaut has ever ridden a personal American spacecraft to the orbiting lab.
SpaceX’s most up-to-date mission, Crew-4, stays aboard the ISS however is scheduled to come back dwelling quickly. Crew-4’s departure date will depend on Crew-5’s launch date; NASA and SpaceX need the 2 missions to overlap for 5 days on the station.
Crew-5 is not the one mission affected by Hurricane Ian. The storm pressured NASA to roll its large Artemis 1 moon rocket off KSC’s Pad 39B and again to the security of the middle’s large Car Meeting Constructing late final evening (Sept. 26).
The Artemis 1 workforce had been hoping to launch the uncrewed moon mission right now. Now, a launch sooner than November appears unlikely.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Fb (opens in new tab).
