The ISS departure date is now April 23.
Space tourists will stay on the ISS for four days longer than planned. The plan called for the Crew Dragon to undock with ISS tourists on April 19. However, NASA is forced to make adjustments.
Tourists stay in space
As reported by Axiom Space, the departure date from the ISS is now April 23.
NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX have agreed on a plan to undock the Axiom 1 crewed spacecraft from the ISS on April 23 at 20:35 ET east coast of the USA. Recording off the coast of Florida is expected on April 24 at approximately 13:46 local time. This decision was made taking into account weather forecasts in the registration area,
— the company said.
The reason for the change of plans is called adverse weather conditions off the coast of Florida, which could prevent picking up a crew in the ocean.
We can say that tourists, including former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria and three businessmen from the USA, Israel and Canada — Larry Connor, Eitan Stibbe and Mark Petit — were lucky with the weather: they will spend an extra four days to the ISS is absolutely free.
The flight of Crew Dragon with NASA astronauts is postponed
- Therefore, the launch of Crew Dragon with NASA astronauts, who are also supposed to go to the ISS, has been postponed.
- They will now be able to do so on April 26.
The undocking of the Crew Dragon ship Endeavor will free up the docking port for the arrival of the Crew Dragon ship named Freedom, which will carry another group of astronauts to work on the station . The next Crew-4 crew launch opportunity opens on April 26 at 04:15 US East Coast time. Additional launch dates — April 27 and 28,
— indicated the agency, specifying that NASA would like at least two days to pass between the Crew Dragon drive with tourists and the launch of Freedom, necessary for the analysis of flight data from Endeavor.
The launch of the Freedom spacecraft will take place from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral in Florida. NASA astronauts Chell Lindgren, Robert Hynes and Jessica Watkins, as well as European Space Agency representative Samantha Cristoforetti will go into orbit. This is the fourth rotation of the ISS crew from the American side as part of the program for delivering astronauts to the station with the help of SpaceX.