Hurricane Ian's imminent arrival on US soil has affected many industries, including the space industry.
NASA and SpaceX have recently announced that it is delaying the launch of the latter's Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) sometime in early October in anticipation of Hurricane Ian's arrival.
Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall on the Florida peninsula as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of around 120 mph, per Fox Weather.
SpaceX Crew-5 Mission Delay Details
The Dragon Endurance spacecraft for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission arrives at the hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida on Sept. 23, 2022. The capsule arrived at the launch complex after making the short journey from its nearby processing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
NASA and SpaceX mentioned in their joint announcement that due to Hurricane Ian's imminent arrival at the Florida peninsula in the next few days, it was decided to delay Crew-5's launch to either Oct. 4 or 5 at 12:23 pm.
SpaceX's Crew-5 mission was previously planned to be sent to the ISS on Oct. 3, with the astronauts arriving at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Endurance spacecraft rolled out to the launch pad around the same time on Sept. 30, per Space.com.
NASA previously anticipated the possible effects of Hurricane Ian on Crew-5's mission, with the space agency creating a contingency plan to launch the mission sometime between Oct. 4 and Oct. 7 in the event that the hurricane won't have a minor impact on the launch's proceedings, per a separate Space.com article.
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Regardless of NASA's contingencies, the space agency rolled back SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Endurance spacecraft back to the company's hangar at Launch Complex 39A.
Kathy Lueders, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said in a briefing that the biggest discussion among NASA's leadership was "probably regarding weather and timing," per Space News. She also added that the space agency is still working on having the launch on Oct. 3, but they know that they've "got to work through weather conditions here at KSC."
The space agency noted that the spacecraft and rocket are mated to each other and are safely secured inside SpaceX's hangar as of the writing of this article.
As of press time, the KSC is in HURCON IV, meaning that the space center is expecting severe weather in the next 72 hours. As such, NASA is busying itself with making preparations across the KSC by securing other property and infrastructure from the coming storm.
Once Hurricane Ian has passed, the space agency will evaluate its impact on the center and determine whether another launch delay is needed to ensure a smooth launch.
Additional Effects of Crew-5's Launch Delay
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 from left to right, top to bottom :NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
Accordingly, SpaceX's Crew-4 mission's return to Earth from the ISS will be delayed as needed to allow a planned five-day direct handover between the two crews once Crew-5 has been launched.
SpaceX's Crew-5 consists of four crew members: NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
These four astronauts will be replacing NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, per a separate NASA blog post.
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