This story was updated at 7:41 a.m. EST.
The first four astronaut launches for NASA of SpaceX will have to wait at least an extra day to land.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and crew will launch the Dragon Capsule astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday (November 14) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Named Crew-1, the mission will now be launched earlier than Sunday due to a weather delay from Tropical Storm Eta, which affects SpaceX’s drone ship rocket recovery operations. The launch itself had a promising 70% chance of good weather.
“Basically, there was an issue of getting the drone ship on time,” Benji Reed, senior director of SpaceX’s human astronaut programs, told reporters at a press conference on Friday. “Due to this tropical storm, the weather was such that we could not get the drone ship there on time.”
Live updates: SpaceX’s Crew-1 astronaut launches for NASA
SpaceX uses self-propelled drones as floating landing pads in the Atlantic Ocean to recover the first phase of its Falcon 9 rocket for reuse. But it requires good weather for operation. The recovery of the first phase of the Crew-1 mission is important as the booster will be used on SpaceX’s next astronaut flight to NASA, which will launch on March 30.
“This booster is very important to us,” said Steve Stitch, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager. “We’re going to re-use the first phase before flying on Crew-1 for your upcoming Crew-2 mission in spring time.”
Reed also said that in response to a question about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s announcement today, SpaceX and NASA currently have no contact-related concerns that it will receive two positive tests for the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, as well as two negative tests. .
“I can assure everyone that we are good for the Crew-1 launch and all the staff involved.”
UPDATE: Due to coastal wind and recovery operations,, NASA and @ SpaceX are targeting the opening of a crew-1 mission with astronauts પર on the space_station on Sunday, this year. Sunday, November 15th. 7:27 p.m. The first phase booster is planned to be re-used to fly astronauts on Crew-2. #Lunch AmericaNovember 13, 2020
SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission will be unveiled by NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Waker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Sochi Noguchi on what the six-month mission to the International Space Station will look like.
The mission is the first operational flight of the SpaceX crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA, and the first four-person flight for the company. (Only two astronauts performed SpaceX’s first crew flight test for NASA in May.)
The mission was originally scheduled to begin on October 23, then pushed back to Oct. 31. Last month, SpaceX and NASA postponed flights in mid-November to allow time to replace two rocket engines on the mission’s Falcon 9 booster.
Related: SpaceX’s Crew-1 astronaut mission in the photo
The 24-hour launch delay means a long journey to the space station for Crew-1 astronauts.
If SpaceX had started the mission on Saturday, the crew-1 astronaut would have arrived at the station early Sunday morning after an 8.5-hour journey due to the location of the station at that time. Due to a one-day delay, the Crew-1 mission will now take about three times longer.
“It’s about 27 hours from launch to dock,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stitch told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday (November 10). “And that’s just because of the way orbital mechanics line up.”
That extra time means crew-1 astronauts will spend the night in their crew dragon, which they call “resilience.”
“It gives them more of a chance to try out the Dragons,” Reed said, adding that SpaceX is also looking forward to seeing how Campsell performs with the full crew complement at the time. “I’m sure there are some broadcast events they could do with this period, and you know, check things out by going to Earth.”
U.S. According to the Space Force forecast, the weather forecast for Sunday’s launch is slightly less favorable than Saturday’s, with a 60% chance of good weather.
If SpaceX is unable to launch on Sunday, the Crew-1 astronaut will have to wait three more days until Wednesday (November 18) to try again. That’s because of a few things: First, the two cosmonauts currently on the space station will spacewalk on Monday, so the station’s current three-person mission 64 crew will be busy. Reid added that the launch on Tuesday would take a really longer time to reach the station than Sunday’s flight profile.
“So the next opportunity will be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, in the middle of next week,” he said.
SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with multi-billion-dollar contracts for NASA to go to the space station and for astronauts to go. Another company, Boeing, will launch astronauts on its own Starliner spacecraft using the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The first crew launch for NASA took place on May 30 by SpaceX. The mission, called Demo-2, lasted two months and took two astronauts to and from the station.
You can watch SpaceX’s Crew-1 launch for NASA starting at 3:15 pm EST (1915 GMT) on Sunday at Space.com.
Editor’s note: The story was updated to include new comments from SpaceX and NASA about the launch delay for the Crew-1 mission.
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him on tariqjmalik. Follow us. Speedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
