Due to a dangerous megastorm in the Atlantic, three astronauts and one cosmonaut who are scheduled to return to Earth this week on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft are forced to stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for a while longer. NASA said their return would not take place before October 13 due to the threat of Hurricane Milton, the most powerful hurricane in 100 years, which is fast approaching the coast of the US state of Florida. This is the second postponement due to weather conditions.
“NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 3:05 a.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 13, due to weather conditions and potential impacts from Hurricane Milton across the Florida peninsula,” the official statement said. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, located at Cape Canaveral, is 200 km from Tampa, which is expected to be impacted by a Category 4 storm, so the region will also feel the devastating effects of the elements.
In addition to delaying the astronauts’ return, Hurricane Milton affected NASA and SpaceX’s Europa Clipper mission to Neptune’s moon. The launch was scheduled for Thursday but was also postponed to a later date due to unfavourable weather conditions.
The Crew-8 mission team has been aboard the ISS since March. Although their delay is not long compared to others, the situation on the station is complicated by the large number of people. There are now 11 people on the ISS: Boeing’s Starliner crew, the Crew-8 team, two cosmonauts and an astronaut who arrived on the Soyuz spacecraft, and two new SpaceX crew members from Crew-9.
This year hasn’t been an easy one for astronauts traveling to and from the ISS. The team of the orbital outpost has often had to face various problems lately. In addition to holes in the station’s hull, problems with spacecraft, and changes in crews, there are added difficulties in meeting mission schedules due to natural disasters.
We previously reported on how the astronauts of the Crew-8 mission were forcibly quarantined.
According to Space
