by NASA is ready to send a fresh crew to the international space station on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule on Thursday, including three leaflets that were assigned to the flight after NASA had pushed problems with Boeing’s restless Starliner capsule last year.
The upswing of Pad 39a in the Kennedy Space Center is set for 12:09 p.m. EDT. If everything goes well, the Crew Dragon will create the laboratory complex early Saturday.
Crew 11 during the simulator training in SpaceX ‘Hawthornia, California, production facility (from left to right): Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, Nasa -Veteran Mike Fincke, Commandant Zena Cardman and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. / Credit: SpaceX
Crew 11 Commander Zena Cardman originally expected to go to the space station last autumn, but she and crew 9 crewmate Stephanie Wilson were bumped into the flight to release two seats to bring Starliner -astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams back to Earth extended stay in the room.
Wilmore and Williams flew last June in the first piloted flight of a Starliner to the Orbital Lab Complex. However, your stay in space was extended due to problems of the star drive system. The NASA managers finally decided to put them down Early this year On board the Crew 9 Dragon with the seats abandoned by Cardman and Wilson.
Crew 11 Commander Zena Cardman, checks the procedures in a SpaceX cockpit simulator. / Credit: NASA
“If I only think about it as an individual and how it influenced me, it was of course an unexpected change,” said Cardman. “But in space flight it is not about me or a person. It’s about what we can do together. None of us can do so ourselves.
“Now I have the opportunity to train with this wonderful, amazing crew. Life is a trip. It takes a lot of curves and I’m only grateful to be here.”
The Cardman co-pilot for the Crew 11 mission is Michael Fincke from NASA, a 58-year-old three-flight veteran who trained to fly on board Boeing’s Starliner, as well as the Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. After the problems last year during the Starlin test flight and the expected long delay before it was started again, both were assigned to the crew 11.
The fourth crew member is Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, a space rookie. Like his crew members, he also expected to fly on board another space, in his case a Russian Sojuz.
But he was assigned crew 11 as part of a common US-Russian seat Swap program, which should ensure that at least one representative of each country is always on board the ISS, even if a ship has to leave with the crew Ferry in an emergency and have to take all of its crew members with him. Platonov is the seventh cosmonaut, which flies on board a crew kite under the institution.
Fincke said the crew was more than ready for the start.
“The place called my name since I returned from my last mission in 2011.”
Your trip to the train station – visiting the crew dragon – makes his sixth flight, a new record for NASA and SpaceX.
A rocket from SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Crew 11 spaceship was towed to the start pad at the Kennedy Space Center. The SpaceX test fired the nine engines of the booster in the first stage on Tuesday to clarify the way for the start. / Credit: SpaceX
Steven Stich, Manager of the Commercial Crew program of NASA, said SpaceX is working to certify crew dragons for up to 15 flights. The SpaceX Ferry ships are currently certified for five flights, but Staich said that a detailed analysis of the flight history, performance and test results from Endavor ES NASA enabled the ship to delete the ship for a sixth flight.
“We focus here to really get this special start to ensure that we cleared everything for six flights and then down the road, depending on the specific vehicle and how many flights it is.
“The overall goal was 15 flights and we got there in many components. Now we are only on a handful that are really there for just six flights (confirmed).”
Obtain the space station
It will take 39 hours of the crew to get the station in early Saturday.
After the endavour has driven about 1,200 feet directly below the outpost, cross in front of the laboratory and up to a point directly above the memory port of the forwardharmonia module. From there it is moved directly down to dock around 3 a.m.
The crew is greeted by Crew 10 Commander Anne McClain, Pilot Nichole Ayers, the commander of the Japanese station, Takuya Onishi and Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, on board the Crew 10 Commander, which were Started to the train station on March 14th. Soyus MS-27/73S Cosmonauuts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zurbritsky are also on hand together with Jonny Kim from NASA, Start from Kazakhstan on April 8th.
Also on board: clothing and personal objects for Cardman, which were started last year before their expected crew 9 flight. These personal objects contained birthday cards, including one of her father, a physicist who died last August shortly before the NASA -Cardman from Crew 9.
She will celebrate her next birthday in October and turn 38.
“My parents knew that I would be on my birthday last year, we thought, so they sent them a few articles in advance so that I could feel at home while I was up there. And now I have the chance to see her,” Cardman told CBS News.
“My whole story, the people who have brought me to where I am today, I think it will really feel something special to feel this connection to my father to my parents on my birthday in space.”
The crew 11 flight leaves will join seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the space station. Lower row, left to right: Crew 10 Commander Anne McLain and Soyus flight engineer Jonny Kim, a NASA astronaut. Middle row, from left to right: crew 10 Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, Soyuz Commandant Sergey Ryzhikov and cosmonaut Alexey Zurbritsky; Upper row from left to right: Crew 10 Pilot Nichole Ayers and Japanese occupation members Takuya Onishi. / Credit: NASA
Cardman and their crew members replace the crew 10 flyers who plan to break off on August 6th, and plan in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California to complete a 145-day mission. The highlights included a space walk from McClain and Ayers and a uninterrupted schedule for research and ward expectations.
“I’m looking forward to doing nothing a few days later,” McClain joked when she was asked what she was most looking forward to returning to Earth. Onishi said he was looking forward to seeing his family again, “and also a hot shower on the floor!”
Ayers added, who said she would miss the opportunity to photograph the earth from the viewpoint of space: “In addition to what Anne and Tak said, I am actually looking forward to a large, juicy burger on the beach.”
Planning for months in orbit
It is not yet known how long crew 11 will be on board the space station.
Up to this point, long -term crews, the USA and Russian, usually spent about six months in orbit. But starting with the Soyuz MS-27/73S mission, the Russians switched to eight-month stays. NASA can follow the Mission of the Crew 12 mission next year.
The proposed budget of the Trump administration for the 2026 financial year would reduce NASA financing by almost 25 percent and instruct the agency to scale the work on board the ISS in favor of a more aggressive planning for any occupation missions.
The NASA managers are now considering extending the crew stays and possibly reducing dragon crew from four to three and maybe only two, one American and one Russian. A reduced crew would need fewer supply missions to save additional money. But it would greatly reduce the execution of research that could be carried out.
No final decisions were made.
“When we start … we have a six -month mission period that we dig out,” said Stoch. “We can expand the mission in real time as required, since we better understand the Reconciliation Act and the appropriation process and what this means compared to the manifesto of the entire station.”
For her part, Cardman told her for another two months in orbit.
“I can’t wait to be in space and two additional months would be a gift,” she said. “Yes, we will currently be Baselaed with the ability to exchange this further analysis for six months. For me, it would be an absolute privilege to stay longer.”
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