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NASA and SpaceX delayed the launch of their first regular commercial manned flight by one day due to weather conditions that could threaten recovery operations at sea if the Dragon capsule were to disrupt flight during ascent.
SpaceX will send four astronauts to the International Space Station Sunday evening instead of Saturday “due to ground winds and recovery operations,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted on Friday after a readiness review.
The launch of Crew-1 is now scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 7:27 pm on Sunday, with docking at the station scheduled for 27 hours later.
The trip will be the first regular rotation of SpaceX’s crew to the orbiting lab, three months after the company completed a high-profile test run.
Update: Due to onshore winds and recovery operations, @NASA is @SpaceX are targeting the launch of the Crew-1 mission with astronauts in @ Space Station at 7:27 pm EST on Sunday, November 15th. The first stage booster will be reused to fly astronauts onto crew-2. #LaunchAmerica
– Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) November 13, 2020
NASA has contingencies for crew rescue operations along the east coast of the United States and across the North Atlantic if an accident forces the dragon capsule to eject from the rocket. This makes sea conditions important when planning the launch.
For Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and founder Elon Musk, the flight marks nearly two decades of effort to transport people and cargo.
SpaceX’s Dragon rocket and Falcon 9 gained NASA approval for regular manned missions this week, making them the first vehicles the U.S. has certificate to transport humans from the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011.
“I hope people realize that this is not just another throw, but something much bigger, ” Michael Hopkins, commander of the Crew-1 mission scheduled for Saturday, said in a NASA post on Tumblr. “Hopefully it’s paving the way, one of those first steps to get us to the moon and Mars.”
In addition to becoming the first regular commercial launch of the US space agency, the Crew-1 mission is also the first manned mission of NASA authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The regulator takes responsibility for public safety because the flight will be conducted by a commercial company.
On Friday, NASA investigated Musk’s recent contacts with key agency personnel he tweeted late Thursday that he could be infected with the new coronavirus. His health won’t affect the launch, Bridenstine told the Washington Post, and Musk will not attend the launch.
Typically astronauts self-quarantine for two weeks before a flight.
Hopkins, 51, an Air Force colonel and test pilot, will make his second stay at the space station, seven years after his first. He will be joined by three others on a mission:
- Shannon Walker, 55, a physicist and originally from Houston, will serve his second stint in the orbiting lab.
- Victor Glover, 44, a California Navy pilot, will take his first flight into space. He will be the first black astronaut stay on the space station for a full six-month rotation, according to NASA.
- Soichi Noguchi, 55, a Japanese astronaut and aeronautical engineer, has the most space experience among the crew and will become one of the very few people to leave Earth in three vehicles: the Russian Soyuz, the retired NASA Space Shuttle and the SpaceX Dragon.
The four astronauts push the space station to maximum occupancy when they join the three people already present.
This will require changes in the way mission controllers schedule the daily exercise regimen for each crew member.
There will also be a tightening on personal quarters where astronauts sleep and have time for themselves.
The space station currently has half a dozen berths for crew, and NASA is completing work on a seventh. Meanwhile, Hopkins will sleep aboard the dragon capsule.
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