Photo: NASA
It seems like it was yesterday when the world got to witness American astronauts departing American soil in an American spaceship after a ten-year drought. Only it was not yesterday, and two years after that moment, NASA is preparing to use SpaceX for its fourth crewed mission to the ISS.
Called Crew-4, the team comprises astronauts Kjell Lindgren (NASA, mission commander), Robert Hines (NASA, pilot), Jessica Watkins (NASA, mission specialist), and Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA, mission specialist). The team will head to the space station for “a science expedition mission.”
Taking the four people up will be a never-before-flown Crew Dragon nicknamed Freedom. It will launch, like all others before it, atop a Falcon 9 rocket that was used before, and the targeted launch date and time are now 5:26 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 23.
Initially, the launch was meant for this week, but the delay was caused by the launch of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) on April 8. NASA says the delay “provides mission teams time to complete final prelaunch processing for the Crew-4 mission.”
As it usually goes when it comes to space exploration, a targeted date for launch is not set in stone. The agency hints April 23 may change as well, given how it’ll have to be coordinated with upcoming spacewalks and the return of Ax-1 crew. Weather could screw up things as well.
NASA will partly decide on whether the mission is a go on April 15, when the flight readiness review (preparedness of the Falcon and Crew Dragon to launch, and of the International Space Station to receive) will be held.
Whenever the launch ends up happening, Crew-4 will reach to station to find Crew-3 still there. The two teams will be on a station together for a while, until Crew-3 finally departs the station and heads back for Earth.
Taking the four people up will be a never-before-flown Crew Dragon nicknamed Freedom. It will launch, like all others before it, atop a Falcon 9 rocket that was used before, and the targeted launch date and time are now 5:26 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 23.
Initially, the launch was meant for this week, but the delay was caused by the launch of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) on April 8. NASA says the delay “provides mission teams time to complete final prelaunch processing for the Crew-4 mission.”
As it usually goes when it comes to space exploration, a targeted date for launch is not set in stone. The agency hints April 23 may change as well, given how it’ll have to be coordinated with upcoming spacewalks and the return of Ax-1 crew. Weather could screw up things as well.
NASA will partly decide on whether the mission is a go on April 15, when the flight readiness review (preparedness of the Falcon and Crew Dragon to launch, and of the International Space Station to receive) will be held.
Whenever the launch ends up happening, Crew-4 will reach to station to find Crew-3 still there. The two teams will be on a station together for a while, until Crew-3 finally departs the station and heads back for Earth.
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