Moscow. The 21st of April. INTERFAX.RU – Due to bad weather, the launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon-2 reusable spacecraft with four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), which was scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed for a day, NASA reported.
Now the launch of the spacecraft with the help of a heavy launch vehicle Falcon 9 is supposed to take place on April 23 at 05:49 US East Coast time (12:49 Moscow time) from the launch pad 39A of the Kennedy Comic Center in Florida (USA).
According to NASA, the launch of the Crew-2 mission to the ISS was postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions at the initial stage of the flight for an emergency landing of the descent capsule and the return of the reusable first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
The crew of Crew Dragon-2 includes representatives of three space agencies at once – NASA astronauts Megan MacArthur (commander of the spacecraft) and Shane Kimbrough (pilot), astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) Thomas Peske and astronaut of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Akihiko Hoshide.
The launch of the manned Crew Dragon-2 is carried out as part of NASA's commercial manned program and a contract with SpaceX, which is the developer of the spacecraft and launch vehicle.
The spacecraft's reusable descent capsule will make its second flight to the ISS. It was first used during the Crew Dragon manned test flight to the ISS last spring. The reusable first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which after launch will have to land vertically on an automatic platform in the Atlantic, will be used for the fourth time.
It is noted that the spacecraft crew will work on the ISS for about six months as part of the station's general crew of seven.
On Saturday, April 24, at approximately 05:09 EST, Crew Dragon will automatically dock with the ISS. For the first time, two Crew Dragon ships will be docked to the station.
The Crew-2 crew will leave the station no earlier than October 31. The descent capsule will have to make a soft landing by parachute in the Atlantic.
For a time, Crew Dragon-2 astronauts will be on the ISS simultaneously with the Crew Dragon-1 crew, which is currently working at the station and also consists of four people. The return of the Crew Dragon-1 is scheduled for late April.
Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX are already preparing the Crew Dragon-3 flight to the ISS. It is slated for the fall.
Currently, the ISS crew consists of Roskosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai, who arrived on the ISS on April 9 on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, and also arrived at the station on November 17, 2020 on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker (who is the station commander) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
