SpaceX’s Crew-8 faces weekslong weather delays; return to Earth expected no earlier than Tuesday night
- by AOL
- Oct 21, 2024
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October 21, 2024 at 12:35 PM
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – The crew of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission is in a familiar holding pattern as ground teams search for suitable weather conditions for the Dragon capsule’s landing following weeks of weather delays.
On Monday, NASA announced that any attempt to splashdown off the coast of Florida would happen no earlier than 9:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday, due in part to rough seas and windy conditions expected along the Sunshine State on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The region has endured weeks of hostile weather, including everything from hurricanes to nor’easters, which have resulted in rough seas and coastal flooding.
"Based on the current forecast, conditions are expected to improve as the week progresses," NASA wrote in a Monday morning blog post.
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, were originally expected to return home over the summer, but their mission was extended to assist Boeing’s failed crewed test flight.
Following the successful docking of a half-empty Crew-9 spacecraft, NASA scheduled a return date for Crew-8 in early October, but that was sidetracked by Hurricane Milton, which struck Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 cyclone. See Renderings Of Space Station To Be Built Around The Moon
Subsequent planned landing attempts post-hurricane were also rescheduled due to rough seas and gusty winds in splashdown zones.
The most recent departure delay was caused by winds off Florida's coast. Wind limits were still above the flight rule limits. Still, NASA's mission control in Houston told the Crew-8 astronaut to continue preparing for departure.
"The team is basically trying what we can, right? So, hopefully, we get lucky, and once the high-resolution models come in overnight tonight, we’ll be able to get a better idea if we’re going to be able to accomplish that or not," mission control told the astronauts.
SpaceX can land the Crew Dragon spacecraft at one of seven locations around the Florida Peninsula, including Pensacola, Tampa, Tallahassee, Panama City, Cape Canaveral, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville.
NASA has specific criteria for a successful spacecraft recovery, including wind speed no greater than 15 feet per second and wave height no greater than 7 degrees wave slope. Lightning must be farther than 10 miles out, and rain chances need to be around 25%.
If the weather improves, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft's earliest splashdown opportunity will be about 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday near Panama City, Florida.
The additional time aboard the ISS has been well spent, as the crew has been able to conduct hundreds of scientific experiments.
"Crew-8’s mission will further the understanding of how humans learn and behave in space and how their bodies respond, and it’s all critical to our lunar exploration. We need all of these to come together to understand how people and technologies and systems will behave when we go on longer-duration missions," NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said after the mission’s launch.
The Dragon spacecraft designated for the SpaceX Crew-9 mission is expected to return home in February and will carry Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov along with Boeing Starliner astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been stuck aboard the ISS since June 6.
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