SpaceX launch of NASA astronauts to space station delayed yet again

HAWTHORNE — Questionable upwind conditions astatine Cape Canaveral successful Florida has prompted yet different hold successful Hawthorne-based SpaceX’s planned motorboat of 4 much astronauts to the International Space Station, and it was not instantly wide erstwhile the travel mightiness occur.

According to NASA, the motorboat that had been planned for 8:36 p.m. California clip Saturday has been scrubbed, on with a projected backup motorboat model connected Sunday, “due to unfavorable upwind conditions,” with experts predicting lone a 40% accidental of favorable weather.

The adjacent imaginable motorboat accidental is 6:51 p.m. California clip Monday.

But that day is tentative astatine best, with SpaceX and NASA officials moving to coordinate plans for different SpaceX unit already aboard the abstraction presumption to instrumentality to Earth, with a splashdown planned disconnected the seashore of Florida. That squad of astronauts, known arsenic SpaceX Crew-2, could undock from the presumption aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour arsenic aboriginal arsenic 10:05 a.m. Sunday, California time, according to NASA. A backup undocking model is besides disposable connected Monday.

If that undocking occurs for Crew-2’s instrumentality trip, the motorboat of SpaceX Crew-3 aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance volition apt beryllium delayed yet again. NASA officials said they volition determine successful the coming days whether to proceed with Crew-2’s instrumentality to Earth.

The motorboat of the Crew-3 ngo has been repeatedly delayed for assorted reasons. The four-member unit was primitively acceptable to motorboat past Saturday, but upwind conditions forced a rescheduling until Wednesday. That travel was past delayed to this coming Saturday owed to an unspecified “minor aesculapian issue” involving 1 of the astronauts. Now the upwind conditions person pushed backmost that planned launch.

The members of Crew-3 awaiting liftoff successful the Endurance capsule are NASA astronauts Raja Chari, ngo commander; Tom Marshburn, pilot; and Kayla Barron, ngo specialist. Also aboard volition beryllium European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, besides a ngo specialist.

The astronauts person been dubbed Crew-3 due to the fact that they marque up SpaceX’s 3rd authoritative manned formation to the abstraction station.

The 4 members of Crew-2 person been aboard the International Space Station since April.

That unit consists of NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

McArthur, who grew up successful Northern California, is simply a UCLA postgraduate successful aerospace engineering, and she earned a doctorate successful oceanography astatine UC San Diego, wherever she was a researcher astatine the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In November 2020, SpaceX sent its archetypal authoritative unit to the abstraction presumption successful a abstracted Dragon spacecraft, dubbed Resilience.

SpaceX’s archetypal unofficial manned ngo to the abstraction presumption occurred past summertime with the historical motorboat of 2 astronauts from Cape Canaveral successful the Endeavour capsule. It was the archetypal manned ngo to motorboat from U.S. ungraded since the Space Shuttle programme was retired. That travel was considered unofficial due to the fact that it was technically a objection formation to trial the capabilities of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.