SpaceX Delays Third Commercial Crew Flight to International Space Station
SpaceX has postponed the launch of its third commercial crew flight to the International Space Station in order to conduct further pre-flight data reviews. The flight, which was chartered by Houston-based Axiom Space, has been rescheduled for Thursday pending final analysis.
The decision to delay the launch was made as the four-man crew, consisting of retired astronaut Michael López-Alegría, Italian Walter Villadei, Swedish flier Marcus Wandt, and Turkey's Alper Gezeravci, were preparing for their two-week research mission aboard the orbital outpost.
The new liftoff time from the Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A is set for 4:49 p.m. EST on Thursday, which aligns with the moment Earth's rotation carries the rocket into the plane of the station's orbit for a rendezvous.
During a teleconference on Tuesday night, Benji Reed, SpaceX's senior director of human spaceflight programs, mentioned two recent issues that engineers were reviewing. The first concern was related to the Crew Dragon parachute "energy modulator" straps, and the second issue involved the torquing of connectors holding the Crew Dragon to the Falcon 9's upper stage.
Reed explained that an inspection of an unpiloted Cargo Dragon that recently returned to Earth from the space station revealed that some of the folded, stitched-together straps holding the ship's main parachutes in place during flight had not performed as expected.
The straps on the Cargo Dragon's parachutes were designed to pull apart and unstitch in a controlled manner during deployment. However, some of the straps came unstitched in a way that slightly increased the loads, although it did not cause any problems.
Engineers discovered that the suspect straps had a tendency to twist during installation, which may have contributed to the unstitching. Therefore, the parachutes in the Crew Dragon were inspected and adjusted to ensure no twists are present.
In addition, some of the connectors holding the Crew Dragon to the Falcon 9 were tightened to slightly different levels than specified. As a precaution, these connectors were replaced.
The launch readiness review will be completed tomorrow, and the data will be reviewed to finalize everything for the flight. The safety of the crew is the top priority, and the launch will only proceed when ready.
