Update March 12, 11:17 PM EDT: NASA declared 7:03 PM EDT (2303 UTC) as a new target launch date on March 14. Adding NASA’s comments about change.
NASA and SpaceX were less than an hour from the launch of a new four crew for the International Space Station on Wednesday evening when a hydrolics issue caused a mission scrub. The current crew of the station requires a flight to relieve, including two astronauts, originally launched at the CST -100 Starlineer spacecraft in Boeing.
The international crew consists of two American astronauts, a Japanese Aerospace Investigation Agency (Jaxa) astronaut and a Russian cosmonot. When the mission is launched, the quartet will fly into the orbiting outpost on the Dragon Endure Spacecraft, which had earlier flew the crew -3, crew -5 and crew -7 missions.
The mission is no longer a launch compared to EDT (2303 UTC) at 7:03 pm before Friday, March 14.
“Mission manager meets [Wednesday] In the evening and Thursday 13 March decided to start a launch attempt, which was forecast of high winds and rainfall in the flight path of the dragon, ”NASA wrote. “The launch teams are also working to address a hydraulic system issue with ground support clamp arm for Falcon 9 rocket at the Launch Complex 39A launched Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ukds- WNIY4
NASA astronaut Anne McClen will lead the crew on a small transit for ISS. Had the launch been launched on Wednesday evening, the dragon would have docked with the forward port of the Hormony module of the EDT (1000 UTC) space station at around 6 pm on Thursday.
McClane, partner NASA’s astronaut Nicole Aires, Jacksa astronaut Takua Onici and Roskomos Cosmonot Kiril Peskov, will stay and work at the space station for a period of about six months to conduct scientific and technical performances.
After a launch readyness review and an additional flight readiness review on Tuesday, NASA did not host the press conference, as is customary, but represented an update on its crew -10 mission blog instead.
“In the last six weeks, the United NASA, the SpaceX team has displayed notable dedication, adaptability and expertise to deliver a unique and challenging mission,” Steve Stitch, CCP manager, in that post. “During this intense period, I am very proud to solve late -breaking technical issues, adjust the operation as required and whatever we do, the collective effort to maintain security at the forefront.”
The fifth crew Dragon Dragon, to make a debut due to the delay in the readiness of the spacecraft, the tail numbers C213, NASA and SpaceX decided to fly the dragon instead. It will be its fourth flight after supporting the launch of Crew -3, Crew -5 and Crew -7.
At his post-Flight-Flight Readiness Review Teleclave on Friday, Stitch said that there were some decline issues with some thrusters on endurance and other additional tasks that were needed to shut down before the launch.
“SpaceX completed the supplementary ground test over the weekend, performing the Dreco Threster performance with reused engine coatings that protect the thruster from oxidation,” NASA wrote. “After successful testing, data analysis and flight justification were presented and accepted by NASA.”
Falcon 9 First Stage Booster launched crew -10 flight, tail number B1090, making its second flight to space and back. It first flew on December 17, 2024, with the seventh and eighth O3B mpower satellites to the satellite communications company, SES, to the SES to ordered the medium earth orbit.
Crew-10 was a fuel leak of the watch items for NASA and SpaceX, which was a fuel leak on March 2 during the Starlink 12–20 mission. This caused a fire in the engine section in less than a minute after touchdown on droneship, ‘Read bus instructions’ and eventually, destruction of that booster, tail number B1086.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b5UH5RXSPK
NASA wrote that it found a summary of the findings arising from SpaceX’s investigation into the fuel leakage accident and jointly stated that with data collected during a static fire test of B1090 on Sunday, March 9. Following that static fire, NASA stated that he inspected the engine bay of that booster and tested for signs of “smell”.
“NASA leaders determined that while the root cause of Starlink Post-Landing Fire is still subject to review, there is enough evidence to provide evacuation to proceed with the launch of the crew,” the agency wrote.
Following the publication of NASA’s blog post, on Tuesday night, SpaceX also launched NASA’s Sphrex and Panch Mission for a Sun-Synchronous, Polar orbit. Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1088, Wandenberg Space Force Base returned to a touchdown in Landing Zone 4 at the mission, in which no reports were made.
Practicality and politics
Once on the ship at the space station, there will be a relatively low handover period between the crew -10 and crew -9. Generally, it will be over five days, but it is being shortened due to concerns about commodities on ISS.
During NASA’s briefing on Friday, NASA’s ISS program manager Dana Weigel said that the upcoming cargo is being managed by Northrop Gramman using its cynus spacecraft, facing an issue. He said that the shipping container of the spacecraft caused some damage as it was being brought to the cape.
Because he said that this is a “important renovation mission”, as a precautionary measure, they are appearing for the CRS -32 mission of SpaceX, which is scheduled to launch in mid -April. This will allow more food and other items to the ISS.
Shift also means that a small handover was determined to have the best course of action.
“We said that for two days only to preserve consumable materials on the ship and what really does for us, it is that it just opens more opportunities,” Vigel said. “So, we have a good weather opportunity, which at least it’s at least that we have an additional crew on the board.”
Vegel said that the Northrop Grumman flight, named NG -22, was originally scheduled to fly in January and then in February, but the Avionics issue was delayed by June.
The return of the Crew -9 quartet also means that Buwing Starlineer Crew Flight Test Mission’s former crew NASA astronaut Buch Wilmor and Sun. Williams, will return to Earth at the end of this week.
The decision to keep them at the space station and return the CST -100 Starlineer spacecraft became a flashpoint in the political world when SpaceX’s founder, political donor and president’s advisor, Elon Musk, made a series of claims on their social media site, X about the return of Wilmor and Williams.
He claimed that without providing evidence, that the then President Joe Biden at the White House from Spacex was offered a proposal to the ISS to fly to an additional dragon mission, which was just to fly only an additional dragon mission to recover the Willmore and Williams.
The comments of President Donald Trump were impressed by those who falsely claimed that the two astronauts were “stuck” at the space station and “left” by the Biden administration.
NASA’s leadership decided in late summer in 2024 that Starlineer was sufficiently outstanding that its crew was to bring it back without its crew and Wilm and Williams made more understanding to bring back as members of Crew -9 flight.
For their share, Wilmore and Williams have also denied the idea that they were left behind or left.
Williams said in a recent interview with CBS News, “We have both been in the army, both the Navy people, our deployment has been increased.” “What do you do for the team, and what was right for the team is to live here and the campaign crew for the international space station.”
