SpaceX Crew-3 Launch Brings Crew to ISS Again Postponed

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The launch of the crew of the United States Institute of Aeronautics and Space, NASA, with SpaceX Crew-3 to the International Space Station (ISS) was postponed again, this time to November 10, 2021. Initially, the launch was to take place on Sunday, November 7, at 2:05 p.m. ET or Monday, November 8 at 02:05 EST, but was pushed back due to weather problems.

Initially, between this Sunday and Monday, NASA plans to perform an ISS crew change with Crew-2 astronauts greeting the Crew-3 team before Crew-2 departs for Earth. However, the space agency has decided to return Crew-2 to Earth first.

This is the second time the launch has been postponed, having previously been scheduled for October 31. Even then Crew-3 had experienced several delays due to weather problems, and once for a minor medical issue with one of the crew members.

Four astronauts—NASA’s Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency—will travel on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to embark on a six-month stay in orbit mission on the ISS.

Crew-3 was the third operational crew flight for SpaceX as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which uses private aircraft to carry NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. If so, it would be the fifth time Space X has sent humans into orbit with Crew Dragons; SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts to the ISS in May 2020.

So far, according to SpaceX’s Twitter post on Sunday, the November 10 launch has an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff. If all goes according to plan, the plane will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and dock at ISS around 7:10 p.m. ET on November 11 or 7:10 a.m. ET on November 12.

THE VERGE, NASA

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