CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA has given SpaceX the official voice for the launch of its next crew mission to the International Space Station.
The mission, called Crew-2, will separate from NASA’s historic Road 39A and Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday morning (April 22) at 06:11 EST (1011 GMT) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This will be the second flight of this particular Crew Dragon. The capsule, named “Endeavor”, transported NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the space station for the Demo-2 test flight for the first time last year.
It will also be the second flight for the first stage booster, which previously transported the Crew-1 astronauts to the space station on November 18, 2020. The dragon will be trapped by four veteran crew members: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
Video: Watch the SpaceX Crew-2 rocket on the road in an amazing drone video
Related: SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station in pictures
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the third different spacecraft for both Hoshide and Kimbrough, as the duo followed in the footsteps of JAXA’s Crew-1 astronaut Soichi Noguchi. (Noguchi became the first astronaut to fly in three different spacecraft – the spacecraft, the Soyuz, and now the crew dragon – when it was launched in November 2020.)
Last week, NASA and SpaceX met for a review of flight readiness to review the spacecraft and launch vehicle to ensure both are certified and ready to fly later this week. The teams went through their checklists, leaving only one small problem to work on.
One of the problems was the amount of liquid oxygen loaded into the launcher. Falcon 9 relies on two components to fuel its journey into space: liquid kerosene rocket grade and liquid oxygen.
According to Bill Gerstenmaier, current vice president of construction and flight reliability at SpaceX (and former head of human spaceflight at NASA), told a news conference last Thursday (April 15) that the teams discovered a small difference in the amount of liquid oxygen . loaded in the launcher compared to the amount that SpaceX expected.
On Tuesday (April 20), Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight at SpaceX, said that the issue of liquid oxygen had been resolved and that Falcon and Dragon had passed two major tests this past weekend: a static fire test and a dress rehearsal with the crew. Both exercises were carried out flawlessly and the mission was given the green light to proceed with the lifting early Thursday morning.
“This is a very exciting time, and we look forward to a successful mission,” Reed said at a news conference on Tuesday (April 20).
Eye on the sky
Forecasters at the 45th Space Wing’s Weather Squadron are asking Thursday to lift a favorable 80% chance in the preceding hours. The only cause for concern at the launch site is the wind blowing away. It had rained a lot here on the spatial coast in the days before launch, but fortunately a high-pressure system would move in on Wednesday, and that would have to clear up the storms, weatherman Brian Cisek said at the news conference on Tuesday.
The team at the 45th Space Wing is monitoring a set of 10 weather permits on launch day, plus any additional restrictions set by the specific launch provider. These include electric field rules, thick cloud rules and the potential for cumulus clouds, to name a few. But SpaceX also has its own limitations that deal with how much precipitation the rocket can fly through and things like wind at the top level.
But that’s not all. SpaceX must also monitor the ocean conditions in the landing zone to ensure that the booster can land safely on the drone. If it was not complex enough, because there are astronauts aboard this dragon, NASA has its own conditions that take into account the weather at different abortion points during the dragon of Orange.
In pictures: SpaceX’s incredible Crew Dragon abortion test for the abortion test
Crew Dragon is equipped with an escape system that will push the spacecraft to safety in the unlikely event that something really goes wrong with the rocket as it climbs into space. All of these factors together form the weathering constraints for these and other commercial crews.
If all goes well as planned, and the weather looks good, we can see an uplift on Thursday morning. Cisek says there is a chance of a backup on Friday morning and the weather looks equally promising for that.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom of Facebook.