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Update 7:41 a.m. Thursday: Overnight, NASA officials postponed the Crew-8 mission until 11:16 p.m. Saturday, citing strong winds and waves along the Dragon spacecraft’s flight path.
Original story: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 is ready to launch on its six-month mission to the International Space Station, extending an ongoing legacy of low-Earth orbit that many Americans continue to underestimate.
“When you step back and think about the International Space Station, anyone under the age of 23 hasn’t known a time in their life when they didn’t have humans in orbit 24/7. “NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails said last month during a speech at the SpaceCom ballroom in Orlando.
“Which is really amazing,” Swails said.
Liftoff of Crew-8 is scheduled for 12:04 a.m. EST Friday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Endeavor capsule from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 will ascend on a northeast trajectory. If necessary, a backup launch opportunity will be available at 11:41 p.m. on Friday, SpaceX announced.
After stage separation, the rocket’s first stage booster will target landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station 7 minutes and 38 seconds after liftoff, generating sonic booms in Brevard County.
FLORIDA TODAY’s space team will connect with NASA television coverage and provide mission updates beginning at 8 p.m. Thursday at floridatoday.com/space.
After reaching orbit, Endeavor should dock with the front of the ISS around 7 a.m. Saturday, Joel Montalbano, NASA’s International Space Station Program manager, said during a news conference Wednesday. After about two hours of leak checks, the hatch should open.
“The Crew-8/Crew-7 handover will take about five days. We will have five days of handover activities, after which we will begin to monitor the weather and look for a landing opportunity for Crew-7. Crew-8 will remain aboard the International Space Station until the end of August,” Montalbano said.
Crew-8 marks NASA’s eighth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the ISS as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
“This mission to the ISS really has a lot of interesting science that they are doing. There are about 200 scientific experiments. And many of the things that were dreamed of in the old days are starting to come true: the use of protein crystal growth, medical research on the use and growth of stem cells in microgravity,” said the administrator of the NASA, Bill Nelson.
Nelson said this research will also study the brain and focus on finding cures for cancer and bone loss.
Crew members 8:
- NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, commander.
- NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, pilot.
- NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, mission specialist.
- Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, mission specialist.
The Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron now sets the probabilities of “launch” conditions at 85%, up from 90%. Lifting winds and isolated showers pose the main weather concerns at Cape Canaveral.
However, forecasters continue to carefully monitor mission “abort weather” along the Falcon 9’s east coast trajectory in case the capsule ejects during a launch anomaly, said Steve Stich, manager of the Falcon 9. NASA Commercial Crew Program. The squadron’s latest forecast now shows a moderate to high risk of severe weather in the climb corridor.
Stich said crews are monitoring sea and wave conditions, wind, precipitation and lightning forecasts at about 60 geographic locations.
During a second NASA news conference Wednesday, Jennifer Buchli, chief scientist for the International Space Station Program, said Endeavor will carry more than 350 pounds of science-related cargo. This will add to the 3,017 pounds transported to the ISS during last month’s NG-20 cargo mission, where a Falcon 9 rocket lifted its first Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft to the orbital outpost.
“We’ve opened the door when it comes to R&D,” said Patrick O’Neill, head of public relations and outreach at the ISS National Laboratory.
“So, Fortune 500 companies. Innovative startups. Academia. Nonprofits. Other government agencies like the NIH, the NSF. They’re all taking advantage of this space environment to bring value to life here on Earth, as well as to develop a robust and sustainable economy in low Earth orbit,” said O’Neill.
For the latest news on NASA’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neal is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, Click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1