From left are NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer in front of a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX
Four astronauts were set to blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a Crew Dragon on Oct. 31 as part of the SpaceX Crew-3 launch — but the spooky date seems to have unintentionally cursed the lift off. The Florida weather and a minor medical issue have played havoc with launch day. It can be tough to keep up with all these delays, but don’t worry — we’ve got you covered with the launch right here.
The earliest the launch window will open now is 6:03 p.m. PT (9:03 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, Nov. 10. Backup launch windows open at 5:40 on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. The webcast usually kicks off around four hours before liftoff.
The whole thing will be streamed live via NASA’s feed, right here.
The NASA astronauts on this Dragon’s passenger list are former US Navy submarine warfare officer Kayla Barron, test pilot Raja Chari and veteran astronaut and emergency physician Tom Marshburn, along with European astronaut Matthias Maurer, a German materials scientist who’s been with the European Space Agency for more than a decade.
During their six months aboard the International Space Station, the Crew-3 astronauts are slated to do multiple spacewalks for space station maintenance and also help perform scientific research in orbit involving fiber optics, growing plants without soil and how astronauts’ eyes change from exposure to space, among other experiments.
Though the Crew Dragon is a reusable spacecraft, this particular vehicle is a brand-new one that’s been dubbed Endurance. The Falcon 9 booster and nose cone have flown before, however.
After liftoff in darkness, the Falcon 9 will return to attempt a landing on a droneship in the Atlantic, and the Dragon will hit speeds over 17,000 miles per hour on its way to intercept the ISS about 22 hours later.
The four astronauts and others already aboard the ISS will welcome two private crews to the space station in coming months as the new era of space tourism accelerates. A group of Japanese tourists will ride a Russian Soyuz capsule to orbit in late 2021, and Axiom Space will conduct its first private astronaut flight to the ISS in early 2022, also on a Crew Dragon.
A Crew Dragon first carried humans in May 2020 when astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode it to the ISS, marking the return of human spaceflight to US soil after a nine-year hiatus following the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. Dragon is one of two vehicles NASA approved for development for its Commercial Crew program. Boeing’s Starliner is still in the uncrewed testing phase after failing to reach orbit during a December 2019 test flight.