(Image credit: Joel Kowsky/NASA) |
A crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station
has been postponed by a day due to weather concerns downrange of the launch
site, NASA said Wednesday.
Liftoff had been scheduled for Thursday but because of
unfavorable conditions along the Atlantic coast, it will now be set for 5:49 am
(0949 GMT) Friday.
"For crewed missions we need to look downrange to make
sure weather's good for a potential launch escape, and for recovery of the
crew," acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk told reporters.
The Crew-2 mission will carry four astronauts in the second
routine taxi ride by SpaceX to ISS since the United States resumed crewed space
flight, and the first with a European.
It involves US astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s Akihiko Hoshide, and the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Thomas Pesquet, who is French.
The mission is also notable for being the first to use a
previously used booster and a previously used capsule -- a key cost-saving goal
of NASA's partnerships with private industry.
"(It is) really helping us to see the full capability
and really realizing the dreams that we had when we started this effort, about
10 years ago with SpaceX," NASA's certification manager Tom Simon told
AFP.
NASA's immediate goal is to be able to reuse booster rockets
at least five times for human space flights.
Sleepover party
Elon Musk's SpaceX has established itself as NASA's favored
transportation provider under the Commercial Crew Program, as the agency waits
on Boeing's troubled Starliner capsule to carry out key tests.
Both companies have multibillion dollar contracts with NASA.
SpaceX's first crewed test flight in May 2020 ended nine
years of American reliance on Russian rockets for rides to the ISS following
the demise of the Space Shuttle program.
The four astronauts will overlap for four days with the crew
of Crew-1 before that team returns from its six-month mission.
With three Russians on board, the station is set to become
unusually crowded, accommodating 11 people.
"It's going to be a sleepover style period of
time," Stahl said, with one astronaut sleeping in each of the docked
SpaceX capsules.
It will also be a labor-intensive time as the astronauts
work around the clock to prepare the Crew-2 capsule for long term spaceflight,
and prepare Crew-1 for its splashdown off the coast of Florida on April 28.
Science goals
The Crew-2 team has around 100 experiments in the diary
during their six month mission.
These include an acoustic technique using ultrasonic waves
to move and manipulate objects or liquids without touching them.
France's Pesquet has said his favorite planned research is a
study examining the effects of weightlessness on brain organoids -- mini brains
created using stem cell technology.
Another important element of the mission is upgrading the
station's solar power system by installing new compact panels that roll open
like a huge yoga mat.
The mission also comes at a time of increasing uncertainty
about the future of the ISS, with Russia announcing it was considering quitting
the program and hoping to build its own space station in 2025.
"We haven't had any discussions with Russia or
Roscosmos on their plans, and they'll do their work and decide what they want
to do and we'll make our decisions on our side with our partners," said
Jurczyk.
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