SpaceX, NASA give final go for historic astronaut launch Wednesday – Space.com

The sun increases behind SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, which stands all set for launch at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 24, 2020.(Image credit: SpaceX)SpaceX is officially”go “to release two NASA astronauts

to the International Space Station this week after objective teams finished the final launch readiness evaluation on Monday (May 25 ). But some bad weather could potentially trigger delays. NASA and SpaceX convened at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC)in Florida on Monday to go over last-minute launch preparations in the last evaluation prior to the wedding day. If all goes according to strategy– and if the weather condition cooperates– SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will take off on a Falcon 9 rocket from the center’s historical Launch Complex 39A on Wednesday (May 27) at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT).

“We had a truly great effective launch Readiness Review and we go for launch,” Hans Koenigsmann vice president of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX, said in a briefing after the launch readiness review.

On board the Crew Dragon spacecraft will be NASA astronauts

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who will end up being the very first astronauts to launch to orbit from U.S. soil in almost a decade. The objective, called Demo-2, will be the very first crewed test flight of

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, following a successful uncrewed test flight, Demo-1, in March 2019. Complete protection: SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 astronaut launch explained More: SpaceX’s historical Demo-2 objective described in 13 actions

All systems are looking helpful for Crew Dragon’s first flight with astronauts → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK pic.twitter.com/2gZzEnMlia May 25, 2020 The last review came 3 days after NASA and SpaceX stated the Demo-2 mission was “go” for launch in a different flight readiness evaluation, which focused”on the preparedness of the Crew Dragon and systems for the Demo-2 mission; the readiness of the International Space Station Program and its international partners to support the flight; and the accreditation of flight preparedness,” NASA authorities stated in a statement. During Monday’s launch readiness review, NASA and SpaceX officials went over extra information from the fixed fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket, which happened on Friday (May 22), in addition to the dry dress wedding rehearsal on Saturday (May 23). Throughout the gown rehearsal, Behnken and Hurley, together with SpaceX and NASA objective groups, went through all the actions that they will on launch day, with the exception of an actual liftoff.

“I can’t inform you how moving it was for me to see Bob and Doug get into cars and right out to the pad and recognize that the next time was going to be when we were preparing yourself to introduce,” Lueders said.

While the launch preparedness evaluation (LRR) discovered that Demo-2 is ready to release, the weather report shows a likelihood of bad launch weather condition.

“All the teams were go, and we’re continuing to make development towards our objective. Now the only thing we need to do is determine how to manage the weather condition,” Kathy Lueders, supervisor of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program stated in the post-LRR rundown.

According to Mike McAleenan, launch weather condition officer for the U.S. Space Force’s

45th Weather Squadron, there is presently a 60% opportunity of good launch weather on Wednesday and a 40% opportunity of a weather offense due to rainfall and clouds, he stated in the post-LRR rundown.

The 45th weather squadron will continue to keep track of the weather up until the final countdown. If the launch is cancelled at the last minute, there will be backup launch opportunities on Saturday and Sunday (May 30 and 31).

; this.parentNode.replaceChild(window.missingImage(), this) “sizes=” (min-width: 1000px )602px, calc(100vw-40px)” data-normal =”https://vanilla.futurecdn.net/space/media/img/missing-image.svg” data-srcset =”https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XzyrtUePiZtmBgbfHQCFtc-320-80.jpg 320w, https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XzyrtUePiZtmBgbfHQCFtc-650-80.jpg 650w, https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XzyrtUePiZtmBgbfHQCFtc-970-80.jpg 970w “data-original-mos=”https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XzyrtUePiZtmBgbfHQCFtc.jpg”data-pin-media=”https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XzyrtUePiZtmBgbfHQCFtc.jpg”> The sun increases behind SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, which stands ready for launch at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 24, 2020.(Image credit: SpaceX)SpaceX is officially”go “to release 2 NASA astronauts

to the International Space Station this week after mission teams groups the final last readiness review on Monday (May Might )., who will become the first astronauts to launch to orbit from U.S. soil in almost a years. The 45th weather condition squadron will continue to monitor the weather condition up until the final countdown., which focused”on the preparedness of the Crew Dragon and systems for the Demo-2 mission; the preparedness of the International Space Station Program and its international partners to support the flight; and the certification of flight preparedness,” NASA officials stated in a statementDeclaration

On launch day, the Falcon 9 rocket will send out the two astronauts on a 19-hour orbital chase of the

International Space Station, where they will join the three-person team of Expedition 63 on Thursday (May 28).

Behnken and Hurley will invest anywhere from

one to 4 months on board the orbiting laboratory, depending upon how well their Crew Dragon spacecraft fares and on the status of another Crew Dragon spacecraft that launch the first operational Crew Dragon objective to the area station, called Crew-1. Go to Space.com daily for complete protection of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 flight. Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com

or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and

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