Tag: Crewed Launch

Four Crewed Launches Scheduled for Space Coast Before Summer

The Orlando Sentinel reports that in the next few months, “14 more humans could launch from U.S. soil as SpaceX has three missions set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on Crew Dragons,” while The Boeing Company “looks to send its CST-100 Starliner up to the International Space Station for the first time with people on board.” Kathryn Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate, said, “We’re heading into, I would say one of the busiest increments in the history of station. We have a string of critical missions coming up.” Upcoming launches include “not only crewed flights from the Space Coast, but [also] a replacement Soyuz capsule to be sent up from Russia to the station for one damaged by micrometeorites and resupply missions from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman and Russia in the next four months.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

NASA, SpaceX Plan Halloween Launch of Crew-3 Flight to Space Station

SPACE reports that the next NASA space station launch, which is set for Halloween, “will put four more astronauts into space on a SpaceX rocket. The Crew-3 launch is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 31 at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0721 GMT), using a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch will take place at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.” The four astronauts on the “SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will be NASA astronauts Raja Chari (mission commander), Tom Marshburn (pilot), and Kayla Barron (mission specialist), as well as European Space Agency astronaut and mission specialist Matthias Maurer.” NASA said in a statement, “Launch on Oct. 31 would have Crew-3 arriving at the space station early on the morning of Monday, Nov. 1, for a short handover with the astronauts who flew to the station in April as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission.”
Full Story (SPACE)

SpaceX, NASA Plan to Make Next Crewed Launch on October 30

The Houston Chronicle reported that NASA and SpaceX are planning to launch the Crew-3 mission October 30. NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer “will launch on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.” The mission is scheduled for 1:43 a.m. CDT.
Full Story (Houston Chronicle)

China Rolls Out Rocket for Crewed Launch to Orbiting Space Station

Space News reports that China “rolled out a Long March 2F rocket Wednesday in preparation to send the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and three astronauts to” the Tianhe core module of China’s space station. The Long March 2F rocket “was vertically transferred to its pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced Wednesday.” Chinese authorities have not given a date for the launch. Shenzhou-12 “was expected to launch around June 10 Beijing time but a week-long delay to the launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo mission likely pushed back the date by a similar length of time.”
Full Story (Space News)

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)