Launch pause for Falcon 9 ended: Next ISS crew launches on Wednesday
On Wednesday, two women and two men will launch to the ISS, including a Frenchwoman. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket used for this purpose is now cleared for launch.
Fedyaev, Hathaway, Meir, and Adenot in their spacesuits
(Image: NASA)
The launch pause for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has been lifted, and the next crew can therefore launch to the International Space Station ISS as planned on Wednesday. This was announced by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA. Over the weekend, another Falcon 9 already launched and delivered several Starlink satellites into orbit. The brief mandatory pause had become necessary because problems occurred after a rocket launch in early February. An investigation followed, which has now been concluded. This allows four people to launch to the ISS again and complete the crew; currently, there are only two Russians and one American on board.
SpaceX has completed investigation
The Falcon 9 is SpaceX's workhorse, currently primarily busy launching the numerous Starlink satellites into orbit. However, the rocket is also used for crewed flights to the ISS. The most recent issue occurred a week ago, after the 14th launch of the year. While the satellites were deployed as planned, the second stage of the rocket suffered a “malfunction,” causing it not to burn up in the atmosphere as intended. Until the cause was identified, no Falcon 9 was allowed to take off. According to the FAA, this has been achieved, and SpaceX has committed to “technical and organizational preventive measures” to prevent such an event from recurring. Therefore, flight operations are possible again.
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With this decision, nothing stands in the way of the SpaceX Crew-12 launch. On Wednesday noon (CET), Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, US astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and French ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot are scheduled to launch to the ISS. They will then succeed Crew-11, who had to leave the space station prematurely for medical reasons. Therefore, only the two Russians Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mîkaev, along with American Christopher Williams, are currently on board. NASA will stream the launch live on Wednesday as usual. They are expected to arrive at the space station on Thursday afternoon, which will also be broadcast.
(mho)
