2024-02-29 12:13:00
Written by Amira Shehata Thursday, February 29, 2024 02:13 PM Postponed SpaceX company NASA’s first astronaut launch of 2024 has been pushed to no later than Saturday (March 2) due to marine weather concerns near the mission’s launch site in Florida, where SpaceX’s four-astronaut mission, called Crew-8, will lift off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. From Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.
According to the “Space” website, NASA wrote in an update to the mission, “The joint teams chose the updated launch opportunity due to forecast unfavorable weather conditions for Friday, March 1, in marine areas along the Dragon spacecraft’s flight path, and waves were observed along the eastern coast.” “It is expected to continue until Saturday morning.”
Unstable sea conditions could pose safety concerns for recovery teams if SpaceX’s Dragon capsule experiences a launch emergency that forces the capsule to abort mid-flight and fall into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
“In the unlikely event of an abort during launch or Dragon flight, wind and wave conditions must be within acceptable conditions for safe recovery of the crew and spacecraft,” NASA officials wrote in the update.
SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission will launch NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Janet Epps, and Russian astronaut Alexander Grebenkin to the International Space Station to begin a six-month mission in orbit, with the astronauts scheduled to return to Earth in late August.
NASA and SpaceX had initially hoped to launch the Crew-8 mission on February 22, but delayed the launch to February 28, and then until after midnight on March 1, to allow more time between SpaceX’s previous launch on February 18 of the same date.
Crew-8 will mark SpaceX’s ninth crewed flight for NASA under a multibillion-dollar agreement to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
SpaceX has flown astronaut missions for NASA since May 2020, and a second company, Boeing, is expected to begin crewed flights for NASA in April using its own Starliner spacecraft.
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