NASA And SpaceX A mission to send four astronauts to the International Space Station has been delayed to avoid “a large storm system,” the agency said on Saturday.
“Crew-3” astronauts were due to board the Crew Dragon spacecraft called “Endurance” on Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, fixed atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
But they will instead aim for a 1:10 a.m. (0510 GMT) launch on Wednesday, which will “deliver Crew-3 to the space station later the same day at approximately 11 a.m. (0300 GMT on Thursday),” NASA said in a statement. said. .
They will then do “a small handover with the astronauts who will fly to the station as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission.”
SpaceX said on its website that whether a launch on that date is impossible, a “backup opportunity” is available on November 4.
The “Crew-3” team will spend six months on the orbital outpost and conduct research to help benefit future deep space exploration and life on Earth.
Scientific highlights of the mission include an experiment to grow plants in space without soil or other growth mediums, and another to create optical fibers in microgravity, which prior research has suggested may be the same as those made on Earth. The quality will be better.
Crew-3 astronauts will also perform spacewalks to complete upgrades to the station’s solar panels and will be present for two touring missions, including Japanese visitors aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and the Space-X Axiom crew, set at the end of the year. Are included. To launch in February 2022.
Crew-3 is part of NASA’s multibillion-dollar partnership with SpaceX that it signed in 2011 after ending the Space Shuttle program and aims to restore American capability to carry out human spaceflight Is.
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