Tag: Crew-5

SpaceX Launches Cargo Dragon Ship to ISS

CBS News reports that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket “boosted a Dragon cargo ship into orbit Tuesday evening, carrying 6,300 pounds of research gear, crew supplies, spare parts and other hardware on a two-day flight to the International Space Station.” The Falcon 9 “roared to life at 8:30 p.m. EDT and raced away from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust, and a torrent of fiery exhaust visible for scores of miles around.” The booster rocket “shot off on a northeasterly trajectory paralleling the East Coast of the United States, dimming to an ember-like speck, as it accelerated away from Florida and out of the lower atmosphere.”
Full Story (CBS News)

 

 Video
CRS-27 Mission

On Tuesday, March 14 at 8:30 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Dragon’s 27th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-27) to the ISS from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SpaceX; YouTube)

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Mission Nearly Over

Aviation Week reports that NASA’s four-person Crew-5 Dragon crew is “scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) early March 11 for a splashdown in the ocean waters off the Florida peninsula at 9:19 p.m. EST, to bring a more than five-month mission to a close.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

 

 Video
Crew-5 Mission | Undocking

SpaceX and NASA are targeting no earlier than Saturday, March 11 at 2:05 a.m. ET for Dragon to autonomously undock from the ISS.
(SpaceX; YouTube)

NASA, SpaceX Successfully Launch Crew-5 Mission to the ISS

Space.com reports that NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission successfully launched to the International Space Station Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Pad 39A.  Liftoff occurred at 12:00 p.m. EDT, “kicking off a roughly 29-hour journey to the orbiting lab.” The spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the ISS on Thursday at 4:57 p.m. ET.  The mission’s “four spaceflyers are NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina.” The launch “made Mann the first Native American woman to reach the final frontier and Kikina the first Russian to fly on a private American spacecraft.”
Full Story (Space.com)

 

 Video

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Mission to the International Space Station (Official NASA Broadcast)
(NASA; YouTube)

Crew-5 Mission Will See Russian Cosmonaut Fly Aboard US Spacecraft for First Time Since 2002

CBS News reports, “Despite frigid U.S.-Russian relations, cosmonaut Anna Kikina is poised to become the first Russian to launch on an American rocket in nearly two decades and the first to fly aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship for a flight to the International Space Station.” On her involvement in the mission, Kikina said, “My leaders just [appointed] me and told me, do you want to be part of Crew 5? Yes! Why not? But I was so surprised.” CBS reports, “Kikina originally expected to fly aboard a Soyuz. But she was assigned to Crew 5 after NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, agreed on a new seat-swap plan intended to ensure at least one U.S. astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut are on board the station at all times.”
Full Story (CBS News)

SpaceX Working to Upgrade Cape Canaveral Launch Pad

Space News reports that while SpaceX is preparing to launch the Crew-5 mission with NASA, the company is “also starting work to host cargo and crew launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.” SpaceX VP for Build and Flight Reliability Bill Gerstenmaier said, “We’ve already started the work to begin the preparations for pad 40. We’ve ordered some hardware, put some contracts into place.” Space News adds, “The effort to build up a crew and cargo capability at SLC-40 is driven by SpaceX’s work to host Starship launches at LC-39A. With that vehicle yet to make its first orbital launch attempt, NASA raised concerns that a Starship launch failure at LC-39A could damage the existing launch infrastructure there and affect NASA’s ability to send cargo and crews to the ISS.”
Full Story (Space News)

Crew-5 Astronauts Prepare for Historic Mission

SPACE reports that Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina along with two American astronauts and a Japanese astronaut are to “fly to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than Oct. 3, 2022 at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT) on SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft.” The four, as part of the Crew-5 mission, “entered a routine pre-flight quarantine on Monday (Sept. 19), according to a NASA statement.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Crew-5 Launch Delayed to Late September

SPACE reports that SpaceX and NASA “will launch Crew-5, their next crewed mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement released on Thursday.” The delay “will see the mission slip behind the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.” NASA officials wrote, “A launch at the end of September will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing and mission teams will continue to review the launch date based on the space station’s visiting spacecraft schedule.”
Full Story (CNET News)