October 13th update: SpaceX’s Crew-4 Dragon Freedom capsule is scheduled to lift off from the International Space Station today at 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT) after a one-day delay due to weather on Earth. The capsule and its four-astronaut crew will blast off off the Florida coast at 5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT). Watch it directly above.
SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission will leave the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday morning (October 13), and you can watch the event live.
Crew 4 the Dragon capsule, his name is freedomis scheduled to be removed from the orbiting laboratory Thursday at 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT), NASA officials said at Blog post (Opens in a new tab) Wednesday (October 13). This is a delay from Wednesday evening due to the weather.
You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency (Opens in a new tab). NASA warns that the departure time is somewhat questionable.
“Mission teams continue to monitor a cold front passing over Florida with the potential for high winds and rainy weather near the water spatter areas off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts,” agency officials said in a blog post. “Mission teams will continue to monitor collapse and recovery conditions, with another weather review approximately six hours before dhow.”
You can also watch a variety of other events related to Thursday’s departure, as we explain below.
Related: Stunning images of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission
Work started relatively early on Wednesday. in 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT), the four astronauts gave Crew 4 some farewell notes. And one of them – the European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforettithe current commander of the International Space Station – handed over the reins of the orbital laboratory to Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev during Leadership Change Ceremony around the same time.
Docking is expected for Thursday at 10:05 AM EST (1405 GMT) With coverage likely to start about 20 minutes before the event. This is a delay from Wednesday evening when undocked at 7:05 PM EST (2305 GMT).
If the mooring continues on schedule, Freedom is expected to take off off the coast of Florida in Thursday time 5:41 PM EST (2141 GMT). NASA and SpaceX Planning to hold a press conference after the start that day in 7 p.m. EST (2300 GMT).
This briefing will feature Steve Stitch, Director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Joel Montalbano, NASA International Space Station the manager of the program; A SpaceX representative.
However, none of these times is engraved in stone. They are dependent on forecast good weather in potential Freedom flow areas in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
“The decoding of the Crew-4 Dragon will depend on a variety of factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, marine conditions, and other factors,” NASA officials wrote in a Wednesday blog post. “Dragon Freedom remains healthy while currently docking at the space station. Opportunities to unpack backups also available on Friday, October 14.”
Crew-4 was launched on top of SpaceX Falcon 9 on April 27 and arrived at the International Space Station on the same day. The mission consists of Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Robert Haines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins.
As its name suggests, Crew-4 is the fourth contracted astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown to NASA’s orbiting laboratory. It is one of two SpaceX flights currently on the International Space Station; Crew-5 arrived on October 6th for five months.
This story was updated at 3:40PM EDT Wednesday, October 12th with news of the undock delay and updated undock opportunities.
Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Great Grand Publishing House, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrials. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab) or on Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
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