SpaceX's Crew 11 mission to the International Space Station was canceled shortly before liftoff on Thursday.
The launch, which was scheduled to take place from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was canceled due to adverse weather forecasts in the launch area. The next attempt is scheduled for Friday at 11:43 a.m. ET.
SpaceX's Crew-11 launch using a Falcon 9 has been moved to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch was originally scheduled for 12:09 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
“I’m looking forward to this mission, but as always, we’ll launch when we’re ready. If all goes well, we’ll see a launch soon and the crew will come home,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said during a pre-launch press briefing. “But be patient. Let’s make sure the vehicle is ready to launch and that our team is confident before we push the button.”
Crew 11 astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimi Yui and Oleg Platonov will need 39 hours from launch to reach the ISS.
“We're going to be monitoring that time very closely. We have a 40-hour limit to get the crew on the way to the station if we need to conserve all the supplies for contingencies. So we're going to be monitoring that very closely,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program.
Crew-11 commander Cardman said at a press conference that the six-month stay on the ISS will help NASA prepare to send astronauts to more distant regions of space.
“Understanding how to live and work for long periods of time – both arriving and staying there – is a really interesting challenge, and I appreciate the opportunity to do that – to hone our skills on the ISS so we can do that for longer periods of time on the Moon,” Cardman added.
According to NASA, the crew will have a busy schedule of experiments and maintenance during their stay on the ISS. They will study the process of additive manufacturing of small metal parts in microgravity and study the physiological and psychological changes that occur during the mission to prepare for the three-year journey to Mars.
“This study looks at how astronauts adapt to space during missions of varying durations, and integrates interdisciplinary research to assess evolving physiological and psychological changes and develop countermeasures that are critical as we prepare for longer missions, such as a three-year mission to Mars, so to speak,” Spetch said at a news conference.
Crews 10 and 11 will work together until Crew 10 returns to Earth on August 6.
Sourse: www.upi.com
