SpaceX and NASA delay return of astronauts to Earth until Sunday



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SpaceX’s Crew-1 Dragon astronauts are now scheduled to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday.

NASA and SpaceX have delayed the crew’s return twice now due to bad weather; the four astronauts were originally scheduled to return Wednesday after a sixth month operation.

“SpaceX and NASA are aiming for Saturday, May 1 at 8:35 p.m. EDT … for Dragon to independently detach itself from the [ISS] and splashing off the coast of Florida on Sunday, May 2 at about 2:57 a.m. EDT… completing its first six-month operational mission to the Station, ”the SpaceX website read.

The decision to delay the crew’s landing for the second time since Wednesday comes “following a review of forecast weather conditions in overflow areas off the coast of Florida, which predicted higher wind speeds to return criteria, “read a blog post on the NASA website. .

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“Crew Dragon is very healthy on the space station, and teams are now anticipating ideal conditions for splashing and recovering over the weekend,” the blog post reads.

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, left the Kennedy Space Center on November 15, when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched. the Crew Dragon. The spacecraft arrived at the ISS on November 17.

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“Gratitude, wonder, connection,” Glover wrote in a tweet Friday on his 45th birthday. “I am full and motivated by these feelings on my birthday, as my first space mission draws to a close. This orbiting laboratory is a true testament to what we can accomplish when we work as a team. Crew-1 is ready for our return home! “

Astronauts will return to Cape Canaveral and Houston upon landing, and the Dragon capsule “will be inspected and refurbished for future manned space flight missions,” according to SpaceX.

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The reusable capsule can carry up to seven passengers and is the first private spacecraft to transport humans to the ISS; SpaceX worked with NASA to create fully reusable launch systems capable of sending humans and goods into space.

Viewers can stream the Astronaut’s Return to Earth live on the SpaceX website, NASA website, NASA TV, and the NASA app.

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“This will be the first nocturnal descent by an American crewed spacecraft since Apollo 8’s pre-dawn return to the Pacific Ocean on December 27, 1968, with NASA astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders “Says the NASA blog.

Crew-1 is the first of six crewed NASA-SpaceX missions that aim to launch astronauts from American rockets onto American soil, according to NASA.

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