Four astronauts hope Friday will be the day heading to the International Space Station.
They were all ready to go on Wednesday after aboard the SpaceX spacecraft on top of the Falcon 9 rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, with less than 45 minutes left in the countdown, SpaceX cancelled its launch. The mission controller was unable to resolve the hydraulic problems with the clamp arm that held the rocket before it started.
The weather along the launch route looked unclear on Thursday, so Friday is their next chance to get off the ground.
Friday's flight is a daily rotation of crew members at the space station, but it's finally attracting attention as it will be able to return to Earth for two NASA astronauts who had planned a short space station last June.
Other information about the mission is other information about the mission, as it is the 10th mission between the SpaceX Ferry crew and the space station.
When will it be released and how can I see it?
Four astronauts (two from NASA, one from Japan and the other from Russia) are scheduled to be released at 7:03pm Eastern time.
NASA will be broadcasting the startup range from 3pm, but it can be viewed by the players listed above. The astronaut wears SpaceX flight suits and rides a dragon capsule of the crew waiting for the start of the trip.
The forecast requires a chance of more than 95% of the favorable weather.
The backup launch opportunity is available on Saturday at 6:41pm, but the weather is not very promising. It is windy and has a mere 50% chance of becoming a favorable condition.
Who will give out space on Crew-10?
NASA's Anne McLain is the commander of Crew 10, and NASA's Nicole Ayers is the pilot. The other two crew members are Onishya of Jakusa, the Japanese space agency, and Kiril Peskov of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
This will be Ayers and Pescov's first space flight and McClain and Onisi's second space flight.
Will Suni Williams and Butch Willmore be rescued after being stuck in orbit?
A kind of thing.
not much.
The spacecraft that revives Suni Williams and Butch Willmore would have been docked to the space station from late September, and could have returned to Earth at any time.
Williams and Wilmore launched on the space station for a test flight of Starliner, an astronaut capsule built under Boeing's NASA contract last June. Due to propulsion issues, NASA officials decided that Williams and Wilmore would not return to Starliner's Earth. In early September, the spacecraft, which had not been blocked from the space station, reentered the atmosphere and landed in New Mexico without any problems.
When the airline scrambled to re-book passengers after the flight was cancelled, NASA had to find a seat to return to Williams and Willmore's home.
The next space flight was Crew 9. This was lifted a few weeks after Starliner left the space station without anyone on board. Two astronauts assigned to the flight clashed, leaving two seats in the SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule for Mr Williams and Mr Willmore on their way home.
So, the crew-9 capsule may have brought back two astronauts at any time after that, but it would have understaffed the space station and affected scientific experiments, operations and maintenance.
NASA and SpaceX may have rushed to Crew 10 missions to launch earlier, but NASA officials have decided that it would be best for Williams and Wilmore to join the space station crew and maintain the planned schedule for Crew 10.
When will Williams and Willmore return to Earth?
Once Crew 10 arrives at the space station, preparations for Crew 9 begin on Saturday at around 11:30pm.
The crew astronauts and crew-10 overlap on the space station for several days. Approximately four days after Crew 10 was released, Williams and Wilmore will be on the spaceship with two astronauts, Alexander Golbunov, who arrives with Natha's Nick Hague and the crew.
If there are bad weather at a splashdown site off the coast of Florida, their stay could be extended again.
What did the astronauts say about their long-term stay?
In an interview last month, “The Daily” host Michael Barbaro asked the astronauts.
“That's a great question,” Wilmore said. “I think it's a job. It's a great fun. It was fun. I definitely tried it. But are you stuck? No, do you stack it? No. Did you abandon it? No.”
This is the third space trip for both Williams, 59, and Willmore, 62, and they know that it could be the last. “We're heading home,” Williams said. “And it makes you really want to enjoy every part of your time you have here.”
Michael Barbaro contributed the report.
