NASA and SpaceX are gearing up for the launch of the Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) later this week. This mission is part of a busy schedule of missions to the ISS planned for this year. The flight readiness review for Crew-8 was completed on February 25, with NASA announcing its approval for the launch. The scheduled launch time is 12:04 a.m. Eastern on March 1 from the Kennedy Space Center, with docking at the ISS expected at approximately 7 a.m. Eastern on March 2.
Crew-8 will be a crew rotation mission, carrying NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, to the ISS for a six-month stay. For Dominick, Barratt, and Epps, this will be their first flight to the ISS, while Barratt will be making his third flight and second long-duration stay on the station.
During a media briefing after the flight readiness review, NASA and SpaceX officials discussed some minor technical issues that they were working on regarding the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. These issues include confirming the proper fastening of composite panels on the vehicle and studying paint discoloration seen on the Crew-7 Crew Dragon currently at the station that could affect the vehicle’s thermal properties on reentry. However, these issues are not expected to be major problems and are likely to be resolved by Tuesday or Wednesday.
One previous issue that has been resolved involved straps in the main parachutes called “energy modulators.” On a previous cargo Dragon mission, some of these straps did not function as intended. However, on the most recent Crew Dragon flight, these straps worked perfectly. Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX vice president of build and flight reliability, confirmed that there were no energy modulator problems on the Ax-3 private astronaut mission that splashed down on February 9.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-8 mission, named Endeavour, will be making its fifth flight. It previously flew the first crewed SpaceX mission, Demo-2, in 2020. NASA has currently certified Crew Dragon for five flights but is working with SpaceX to extend that certification to as many as 15 flights. The evaluation of various vehicle components is ongoing, and the goal is to extend the lifetime of Crew Dragon to some intermediate value between 5 and 15 flights.
SpaceX is also in the process of completing a fifth Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is expected to be ready this fall. It is planned to fly the Crew-10 mission in 2025. According to Gerstenmaier, the vehicle will be available for NASA’s use sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle is also preparing for its long-delayed first crewed flight, which is scheduled for this spring. The Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, is currently set for launch on April 22. Several issues that caused delays have been resolved, including a successful final parachute test in early January. Workers have also addressed in-flight anomalies from the OFT-2 uncrewed test flight in May 2022. If everything goes according to plan, Starliner will be launched at the end of April.
The launch of Starliner will fit into a busy schedule of missions to the ISS. The Crew-7 Crew Dragon mission is scheduled to undock no earlier than March 8, making way for the CRS-30 cargo Dragon mission, which is set to launch in mid-March. After the cargo Dragon mission, the Crew-8 Crew Dragon will move from the forward to the zenith docking ports to allow Starliner to dock at the forward port. The busy timeframe may result in future launch date adjustments for Starliner.
The CRS-30 mission is currently scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40, making it the first mission to use the crew and cargo access tower that SpaceX built at the pad. This will provide redundancy in case there are problems with Launch Complex 39A and help address launch pad congestion issues. SpaceX has modified LC-39A to support Falcon Heavy launches and to allow Intuitive Machines’ lunar landers to be fueled with liquid oxygen and methane propellants shortly before launch.
The Crew-8 mission experienced a slight delay to accommodate the IM-1 mission, which launched on February 15. The launch date for Crew-8 was adjusted multiple times to protect as many options as possible. The competition for launch pad availability is unexpected but highlights the importance of having multiple launch pads. Despite the delay, Crew-8 will still be launching from LC-39A.
The upcoming Crew-8 mission represents another significant step in NASA’s partnership with SpaceX and the continued human presence on the ISS. With a busy schedule of missions planned for