WASHINGTON – NASA officials said on March 1 that the next SpaceX commercial crew mission to the International Space Station remains on schedule for the end of April, but that a Boeing unmanned test flight faces further delays.
The Crew-2 mission, a flight of SpaceX’s spacecraft Crew Dragon, which transports astronauts from NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aviation Agency to the station, remains on track for a launch no earlier than April 20.
The actual launch date may shift by a few days “to optimize some of the orbital mechanics and launch opportunities more,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program. The agency is trying to fit the mission in during a window between the mid-April departure of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft and a “beta cut” in May when the solar angles restrict ISS activity.
The schedule should also allow for the return of the Crew-1 mission on the Crew Dragon that is currently at the station. Stich said the goal is for the spacecraft to return to Earth on May 9 to avoid ‘dark landing’ for the spacecraft’s splash.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX sees any major challenges for the launch at the end of April, not even after the Merlin engine was shut down at a 15 Falcon 9 launch, which prevented the booster from landing. “Everyone is on track and ready for an April 20 readiness date,” Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight programs at SpaceX, said during the briefing.
The Crew-2 mission is the third Crew Dragon flight to transport astronauts, but the first such spacecraft to be reused. The Crew Dragon capsule for Crew-2 flew the Demo-2 mission last year, and workers have spent the last few months refurbishing it for the upcoming flight.
SpaceX is working with NASA on the refurbishment process and determining which components need to be replaced to ensure the safety of the crew and what can be kept. “I can happily say that the vast majority of the vehicle is a pilot’s license,” Reed said. Some valves and parts of the thermal protection system are changed, along with parachutes that are replaced after each flight. “Otherwise, it’s actually the same vehicle that is very carefully inspected, prepared and refurbished when needed and ready to fly.”
SpaceX also “strengthened” the structure of the spacecraft to improve the acceptable wind speeds and wave heights for splashes, thus extending the landing chances. “This is one of the most important updates we’ve done on this dragon,” he said.
Stich added that the spacecraft has improved the performance of the roadbreaker in the form of additional propellant for the SuperDraco propellers, which also improves the launch restrictions by allowing launch when there is strong wind on land. “I really consider this flight a flight for abortion improvement,” he said.
Starliner delay
The Crew-2 mission would be the third spacecraft for crew to visit the ISS in April. This will be preceded by the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, which will be launched on 9 April.
NASA has scheduled the launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle on the unmanned Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission for April 2nd. The mission will be a reflection of the original, flawed OFT mission in December 2019 that could not arrive at the station due to software issues.
However, it is now unlikely that the mission, which was recently postponed to the end of March, will be ready to launch in early April. “We’re going to move from 4/2,” Stich said. The preparations for the mission are about two weeks behind schedule, he said, in part because of the winter weather and associated power outages in the Houston area that delayed the test of software for the spacecraft by a week.
It is unclear when the OFT-2 could take place due to the upcoming Soyuz and Crew-2 missions, and then availability on the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral for the launch of the Atlas 5 mission. “This is a very busy time frame on the space station, “Stich said. ‘And then it’s a busy time in the series, so we’ve working hand in hand with Boeing to determine when the launch date will be. We will have to wait for further developments on exactly when that flight will fly. ”