NASA and SpaceX are now planning to launch the Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 25. The agency had hoped for an August 17 launch, but recent schedule changes to several other NASA missions departing from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida forced the team to postpone the date. Due to adverse weather conditions, Crew-7 still has additional launch capabilities on August 26 and August 27.
To launch, the Crew-7 mission will use a reliable, reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon capsule called Endurance, which has previously successfully delivered astronauts to the orbital outpost during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions.
The crew of the Crew-7 mission will consist of four astronauts: Jasmin Moghbeli from the United States, Andreas Mogensen from Denmark from the European Space Agency, Satoshi Furukawa from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Konstantin Borisov from Roscosmos.
After launch, the crew will reach the ISS the next day and for the next six months will live and work aboard the orbital outpost at an altitude of about 400 km above the Earth’s surface.
SpaceX will provide a live broadcast of the key stages of the launch and the arrival of the crew to the ISS.
The Crew-7 mission will be NASA’s first manned launch since Crew-6 in February. Note that in May, NASA also adhered to the launch of individuals as part of the Ax-2 mission to the ISS.
Cooperation with SpaceX and the development of their reusable space flight system allowed NASA to resume manned launches from American land in 2020 after the agency depended on Russian rockets and spacecraft after the completion of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
Now, 9 out of 10 manned SpaceX missions use Crew Dragon to deliver astronauts to the ISS, and one mission used a modified version with a glass dome to transport four tourists to a long orbit around the Earth.
Earlier, we reported on how SpaceX would improve Crew Dragon after the Soyuz incident.
According to NASA
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