Finally, they are off. The three astronauts and one cosmonaut of SpaceX The Crew-10 mission is on its way to the International Space Station. Lifrof went smoothly, at 19:03 ET on Friday, when the “Sokol 9” rocket raised the dragon's spacecraft, named endurance, in space.
Why was SpaceX launches postponed?
NASA was planning the spacecraft elevator for 19:48 ET Wednesday from launching Complex 39a at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch complex has shown history, dating from the era of the Apollo Moon program of the 1960s.
However, a problem with the hydraulic system meant NASA's astronauts Ann McClane and Nicole Ayers, the Air Force Research Agency in Japan, astronaut Takuja Onishi and Roskosmos Cosmonaut Kiril Peskov had to get out of the spacecraft. Plans to try again on Thursday were lifted due to the weather forecast and moved on Friday.
Read more: NASA's “strained” astronauts these days away from coming home
Looking at the launch on Friday
NASA launched the launch at 7:03 pm ET Friday, March 14, from the 39A launch complex.
Crew-10 Dox to ISS: How to watch
Arrival coverage begins at 9:45 pm on Saturday. Free streaming service NASA Plus will broadcast the events for the opening ceremony, opening the aperture and welcome. If all goes smoothly, the endurance will join the ISS at 11:30 on Saturday, with the opening of Hatch scheduled for 01:05 on Sunday.
Returning to “stuck” astronauts
The crew-10 has a little more driving on it than a typical mission of rotating the crew. NASA Sunita's Astronauts “Sunni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore It became long -term inhabitants of the ISS after driving at the Starliner crew's test mission station. The crew capsule encountered technical problems and was returned to Earth without astronauts.
Williams and Wilmore ISS remain unexpectedly stretched for more than eight months. The arrival of the crew-10 means that Vilms, Wilmore, NASA astronaut, Nick Hague and Roskosmos Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov will be able to hand over the duties to the newcomers and return to Earth of A. SpaceX Dragon sent in September. That dragon arrived with two open places for the Starliner's crew.
With a successful launch on Friday, crew-9 members, including many delayed Williams and Wilmore, will leave the space station no earlier than Wednesday, March 19, depending on the time of the plastown locations off the coast of Florida.
Both Williams and Wilmore have insisted they do not feel stuck, though that term has been widely applied to them in the news and social media.
Watch this: NASA SpaceX crew launch: The mission begins to return “captured” astronauts