Bad weather forces NASA to cancel the return of the Crew-4 mission

Miami, Oct. 13 (EFE). – NASA on Thursday canceled today’s scheduled return of the Crew-4 mission to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) due to poor weather conditions in the offshore access areas from Florida (USA). ).

A few hours before the Dragon Freedom separated from Space X, with its four crew members on board, NASA flight controllers halted the operation and then canceled the departure and was tentatively set for tomorrow, Friday, 11 a.m.:35 p.m. ED 15: 30 GMT), a new chance to come back.

This has not been reported at the time when the ship and its four crew members will reach the Atlantic waters off the coast of Florida if they can begin their return tomorrow at the announced time.

This is the second postponement of the return of this mission, which was initially supposed to start its journey to Earth on Wednesday, but was postponed until Thursday due to weather conditions in the landing area.

Aboard the Dragon Freedom, built by privately held SpaceX, will travel commander Kjell Lindgren and NASA colleagues Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines and Italian Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Crew-4 mission arrived at the International Space Station on April 27 to begin a six-month scientific mission, during which they carried out, among other things, experiments to study the aging-like changes produced by microgravity in human immune cells and the possible way. to reverse it.

Likewise, he experimented with a concrete alternative made from materials found in Moon and Martian dust, from which future space bases would eventually be built and would provide for long-distance missions.

Last week they received their replacement, members of Crew-5, the fifth manned mission jointly conducted by NASA and SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s company, as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew program. Space, in which Boeing also participates.

The four crew members arrived at the International Space Station aboard Dragon Endurance last Thursday, about thirty hours after liftoff by a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The six-month Crew-5 mission consists of two NASA astronauts, mission commander Nicole Onabu Mann and pilot Josh Kasada, as well as Koichi Wakata from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina from Roscosmos. EFE

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