Simply two days after SpaceX safely returned 4 astronauts from the Worldwide House Station, it’s sending one other quartet to orbit. Try the launch stay on the video above – SpaceX will begin offering protection from 4:45 PM EDT, with liftoff scheduled for 9:03 PM EDT. You too can watch a livestream of the launch on the NASA TV Youtube channel.
The launch, referred to as Crew-3, was initially scheduled to take-off on the auspicious date of Halloween, however it encountered a sequence of delays, first attributable to opposed climate after which a “minor medical problem” involving one of many crew members. (NASA didn’t present any additional particulars on the problem, solely specifying that it was not not an emergency nor associated to COVID-19.)
However now the launch is again on monitor. The foursome – NASA’s Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and the European House Company’s Matthias Maurer – will probably be ferried to the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon capsule they’ve dubbed “Endurance,” aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. It is going to be the primary time in area for Maurer, Barron, and Chari, and the third mission for Maurer. They’re scheduled to spend the subsequent six months on the station, the place they’ll be a part of only one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts.
Crew-3 is a part of NASA’s Industrial Crew Program, a partnership between the company and personal trade to develop and use human area transportation autos. SpaceX started offering transportation companies to and from the ISS beneath the CCP in 2020, beneath a $3.1 billion contract for six missions. Boeing was awarded a $4.8 billion contract beneath this system for its Starliner capsule, which has confronted a sequence of technical snafus that may doubtless maintain it grounded till the primary half of subsequent yr.
Liftoff will happen from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida, with the astronauts scheduled to reach on the ISS by Thursday night. Ought to climate circumstances show unfavorable for launch, SpaceX could have one other alternative 24 hours later.
Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 booster is anticipated to land autonomously on the “A Shortfall of Gravitas” barge stationed off the Florida coast.
Tonight, @NASA’s @SpaceX #Crew3 mission launches to the @Space_Station with @Astro_Raja, @AstroMarshburn, Kayla Barron, and @astro_matthias aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Tune in:
• 4:45pm ET: Protection begins
• 9:03pm ET: Liftoff💻: https://t.co/YeWrpz41EN pic.twitter.com/C05cp05IrO
— NASA Industrial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) November 10, 2021
