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Updated April 21st, 2021 at 18:42 IST

Crewed SpaceX flight to ISS postponed to April 23 due to unfavourable weather: NASA

NASA on April 21 said that a crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station has been postponed by a day due to concerns over the weather.

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
SpaceX
Image: NASA/Twitter | Image:self
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The US Space agency NASA on April 21 said that a crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station has been postponed by a day due to concerns over the weather. NASA informed that the flight was scheduled for Thursday, however, because of an unfavourable weather forecast along the flight path the liftoff is now be set for April 23 at 5:59am (local time). The SpaceX rocket is to carry four astronauts to the ISS in the second routine mission since the US resumed a crewed space flight and the first with a European. 

 

SpaceX Crew-2 mission 

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket are set to be launched from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida and then dock on the ISS port. This will be Crew Dragon's second flight since last year when it had carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the space station for the Demo-2 test flight. The mission, called Crew-2, involves US astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s Akihiko Hoshide, and the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Thomas Pesquet, who is French.

SpaceX Crew 2 astronauts have already begun to quarantine themselves to take utmost precautions while they are still on land. Now, if everything goes as planned, the rocket will drop the SpaceX Crew 2 astronauts at the International Space Station within 23 hours.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has established itself as NASA’s favoured transportation provider.  SpaceX’s first crewed test flight back in 2020 even ended nine years of American reliance on Russian rockets for rides to the ISS following the demise of the Space Shuttle programme. Friday’s flight, on the other hand, will reuse the booster ricked used un the Crew-1 mission and the Crew Dragon will be the same as that used in the test mission. 

(Image: NASA/Twitter)

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Published April 21st, 2021 at 18:42 IST

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