Crew 4’s return flight to Earth is delayed

A cold front in Florida causes four crew members to change flight for Thursday

The four of them Crew-4 mission astronauts will make the return trip To Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) This Thursday And not this Wednesday as planned, NASA said in an update.

The US agency indicated that Separation of the Dragon Freedom capsule from the private company SpaceX, “weather lag” in potential launch areas.

Mission teams continue Watch for a cold front passing over Florida with the potential to bring high winds and rainy weather In the mission’s blog, the space agency said, near the sparse areas off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts “in Mexico.

NASA and SpaceX are now aiming for the Dragon Freedom spacecraft to begin decoding it from the International Space Station no later than 10:05 a.m. ET (14:05 GMT) tomorrow, Thursday.

If so, it would begin the journey back to Earth at that time, to complete a science mission of nearly six months in orbit.

If all goes as planned, the ship Freedom Led by Kjell LindgrenNASA colleagues Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines and Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, of the European Space Agency (ESA), will plunge into the Atlantic Ocean at 5:43 p.m. (9:43 p.m. GMT) on Thursday, October 13, NASA said.

‘Freedom of the Dragon Stays healthy while docked with the space station. The NASA blog added that backup release opportunities are also available on Friday, October 14.

The Crew-4 mission arrived at the International Space Station on April 27 To begin a six-month science mission, and last week its replacement, the Crew-5 mission, arrived at the Space Lab.

Verb The Crew-4 Experiments to study age-like changes produced by microgravity in human immune cells And the possible way to reverse it.

Likewise, he experimented with a concrete alternative made from materials found in Moon and Martian dust, from which future space bases would eventually be built and would provide for long-distance missions.

Italy’s Cristoforetti hinted at a press conference this Tuesday from the International Space Station Research was conducted to improve food in spaceWhile American Hines said the northern lights are probably the thing he remembers more than everything he saw through the windows of the International Space Station.

“It’s the idea of ​​seeing the planet as a whole from the International Space Station…it’s a global view,” added Haynes, who served 21 years as a pilot in the US Air Force.

Last week they received their replacement i.e. Crew-5 membersthe fifth manned mission conducted jointly by NASA and SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk, as part of the Space Agency’s Commercial Crew program in which Boeing is also participating.

The four crew members arrived at the International Space Station aboard Dragon Endurance last Thursday, about 30 hours after liftoff by a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The six-month Crew-5 mission consists of two NASA astronauts, mission commander Nicole Onabu Mann and pilot Josh Kasada, as well as Koichi Wakata from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina from Roscosmos.