mercredi 12 octobre 2022

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 Space Station Departure Delayed for Weather

 







SpaceX - Dragon Crew-4 Mission patch.


Oct 12, 2022

NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 10:05 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 13, for the agency’s Crew-4 undocking from the International Space Station to begin the return trip to Earth completing a nearly six-month science mission in orbit. Splashdown is targeted several hours later at 5:43 p.m. Thursday off the coast of Florida.

Mission teams continue to monitor a cold front passing over Florida with the potential to bring high winds and rainy weather near the splashdown zones off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Mission teams will continue to monitor splashdown and recovery conditions with another weather review around six hours prior to undocking.


Image above: The SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts are seated inside the Dragon Freedom crew ship. The commercial crew quartet (from left) are Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, Pilot Robert Hines, Commander Kjell Lindgren, and Mission Specialist Samantha Cristorforetti. Photo credit: SpaceX.

Crew 4’s Dragon undocking depends on a variety of factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. Dragon Freedom remains healthy while currently docked to the space station. Back-up undocking opportunities also are available Friday, Oct. 14.

NASA will provide live coverage of the upcoming return activities for the Crew-4 mission with NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Dragon’s hatch closing, undocking, and splashdown coverage will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. NASA also will host an audio only post-splashdown news teleconference. Follow all live events at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 return coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

Thursday, Oct. 13

 8 a.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins for 8:20 a.m. hatch closing
 9:45 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins for 10:05 a.m. undocking with a Thursday  splashdown
 5:43 p.m. – Splashdown off the coast of Florida
 7 p.m. – Return to Earth media teleconference call from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in  Houston with:

- Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
. Joel Montalbano, manger, International Space Station, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
- SpaceX Representative

Related links:

Commercial Crew: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Jason Costa.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch