NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, Commander Kel Lindgren, pilot Bob Hines and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Christophoretti at 39A Tower, with SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom spacecraft in the background. Credit: SpaceX
Just 39 hours after SpaceX brought four private astronauts back to Earth, the next launch of NASA’s crew is scheduled for early Wednesday in Florida, with a planetary geologist, doctor and former US and Italian fighter pilots heading to the International Space Station.
The four astronauts assigned to the NASA Crew-4 mission had to wait a few extra days to begin their flight to the station. SpaceX and NASA have delayed the launch of Crew-4 to await the departure of another capsule of the crew from the station, the return of which was itself delayed a week ago due to schedule limitations and weather problems.
But SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavor capsule finally detached from the station on Sunday, clearing the docking port needed for the Crew-4 mission to arrive. Taking advantage of strong winds, Dragon Endeavor and its four-member crew sailed safely off the coast of Georgia at 13:06 EDT (1706 GMT) on Monday, ending the first all-private, non-governmental mission to the International Space Station.
The 17-day flight to the Houston-based Axiom Space was the first fully commercial mission of its kind to visit the orbital research complex. This is a guide for future private crew flights to the station and may eventually lead to the development of a private outpost served by people in low Earth orbit.
The descent cleared the way for the launch of SpaceX’s Draw Freedom spacecraft Crew-4, a new capsule in the company’s fleet, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center 39A at 3:52 a.m. EDT (7:52 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday. A Falcon 9 rocket, powered by a reusable accelerator with three flights, will send the Dragon capsule into orbit.
Commander Kel Lindgren, a veteran of a previous space station expedition, is leading a four-member crew expected to take off on Wednesday. He will be joined by pilot Bob Hines and mission specialist Jessica Watkins, two pilots for the first time from NASA’s astronaut corps. Astronaut from the European Space Agency Samantha Cristoforetti, a native of Italy, who spent nearly 200 days in orbit in 2014 and 2015, added the crew.
“We are truly in a golden age of space exploration,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We saw the first private mission of an astronaut, which returned successfully, now a 39-hour turn and we will launch Crew-4.”
If the launch takes off early Wednesday, Crew-4 astronauts must land in the Harmony module of the space station at 20:15 EDT Wednesday (0015 GMT Thursday).
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon Freedom spacecraft at 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX and NASA engineers reviewed data from the Axiom mission and allowed the Crew-4 mission to take off during a launch readiness review early Tuesday.
“It was a very clean flight overall, there were really no serious problems,” said Steve Stitch, NASA’s sales crew program manager. “The team went through all the data and had the opportunity to review everything. They looked at the thermal protection system. “
Stitch said the paratroopers of the Dragon Endeavor spacecraft performed well on Monday, with no signs of slowing the inflation of one of the four main gutters, a phenomenon seen in several previous Dragon flights.
The Crew-4 mission will be the seventh space launch by astroX astronauts and the crew’s fourth operational rotational flight to the space station under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA. The space agency announced in February that it had assigned three additional flights to the SpaceX crew on the Dragon spacecraft, an extension of the nearly $ 900 million contract covering the Crew-7, Crew-8 and Crew-9 missions.
NASA has a similar contract with Boeing for six operational missions of the crew of the Starliner spacecraft, which is still in a test phase and has not yet flown with astronauts.
Stitch said the final loading of cargo on the Dragon Freedom spacecraft was completed in preparation for launch on Wednesday. SpaceX rebuilding teams, the U.S. military rescue force and the Coast Guard are ready to support the mission, he said.
There is a 90% chance of an acceptable time at the Kennedy Space Center for takeoff on Wednesday morning and a low to moderate risk of bad conditions in the Falcon 9 corridor, heading northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX is monitoring lower-range conditions to ensure that weather and sea conditions are safe for the Dragon spacecraft to disperse in the event of a flight interruption caused by rocket damage.
After the Dragon spacecraft delivers its crew to the space station, Lindgren, Hines, Christophoretti and Watkins will receive briefings from the four astronauts they replace at the station.
The flight plan envisions a transfer of at least five days between the new Crew-4 astronauts and the departing Crew-3 astronauts, who are scheduled to leave the station around May 4, aimed at falling off the coast of Florida around May 5, ending almost six months mission.
Commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn and mission specialists Matthias Maurer and Kayla Barron launched the Crew-3 mission last November. They will ride on SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft back to Earth, leaving the Crew-4 astronauts at the station with three Russian astronauts.
The KSC press countdown clock shows the Crew-4 mission patch, with Falcon 9 and Dragon Freedom at 39A in the background. Credit: Stephen Clark / Space Flight Now
Lindgren and his crew will fly during the first mission of the fourth – and probably last – SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The crew announced last month that the new capsule would be called Freedom.
“We want to celebrate what we see as a fundamental human right, as well as to celebrate what the unlimited human spirit is capable of,” Lindgren told a news conference before the flight. “And it’s also something of a reflection of how we got there.”
The name also honors Freedom 7, the capsule that transported astronaut Alan Shepard into suborbital space during the first human space flight mission to the United States in May 1961.
“Seeing the first launch of Freedom 7 and seeing where we are today is truly remarkable,” Lindgren said. “So we wanted to celebrate the freedom of a new generation of space pilots.
The new Dragon Freedom spacecraft looks like the other three capsules in the SpaceX reusable fleet. But it comes with some improvements, including an improvement in the voice communication system.
The astronauts also announced an addition that will be appreciated by everyone during the long journey.
“We now have USB charging ports on this spacecraft,” Lindgren said. “It’s something that goes into low Earth orbit and takes us to the space station, and I’m talking about USB ports.”
Charging ports will allow astronauts to replenish the power of their tablets, which contain reference materials for flights to the space station.
“These are the little things. Next is the coffee machine, ”Lindgren joked.
“No wifi though!” Hines replied.
The crew will have access to the Internet upon arrival at the space station. Communications aboard the Dragon spacecraft are under the control of the SpaceX mission in Hawthorne, California.
Lindgren, 49, and a father of three, was born in Taiwan and raised in England and the United States, then attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where she was a member of the school’s parachute team. He later received a medical degree and became a NASA flight surgeon before being selected to join the NASA Astronaut Corps in 2009.
After completing her first space mission, a lengthy 141-day expedition, Lindgren was assigned as a backup to NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Benken on SpaceX Dragon’s first test flight to transport humans into orbit.
Hines is a 47-year-old lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force who is preparing for his first space launch. He was born in North Carolina and grew up in Pennsylvania, then served as an F-15E fighter pilot and graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School. Hines continued to fly the F-15 as a test pilot and deployed abroad to support Special Forces operations, while also working as a test pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration.
NASA hired Hines as a research pilot based in Houston in 2012, and the agency chose him to become an astronaut in 2017.
Watkins also joined NASA’s squad of astronauts in 2017. The 33-year-old scientist will become the first black woman to live and work on the space station for a long-term mission.
“I think this is certainly an important milestone for both our agency and the country,” Watkins said. “I think it’s really just a tribute to the legacy of the black women astronauts who came before, and to the exciting future ahead.
She was born in Maryland and considers Lafayette, Colorado, her hometown. She received a doctorate in geology from UCLA, then joined the research team working on NASA’s Curiosity mission, participated in system design for the Perseverance rover and the Mars Sample Return mission.
Watkins was one of 18 astronauts identified by NASA in 2020 for potential future lunar missions under the Artemis Lunar Program. She said her work at the station, among other tasks, will help develop technologies and robotics for the Artemis program, along with experiments in radiation protection and human health and biological research, all areas aimed at allowing longer and more distant missions in space.
“As NASA orbits the moon and Mars, this focal point is the space station,” Hines said. “So all this technology goes to the space station, where we develop and improve it …
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