April 9, 2022: International Space Station Configuration. Six spaceships are parked at the spaceport station including the SpaceX Dragons Endurance and Endeavour; the Northrop Grumman Cygnus area freighter; and Russias Soyuz MS-21 crew ship and the Progress 79 and 80 resupply ships. Credit: NASA
The incorporated NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX groups have settled on a prepare for the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) team to undock from the International Space Station at 8:35 p.m. EDT Saturday, April 23, for a splashdown off the coast of Florida about 1:46 p.m. Sunday, April 24. The choice was made based upon the very best weather condition for splashdown of the first private astronaut mission to visit the International Space Station and the return trajectory needed to return the team and the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft back to Earth securely.
Formerly, after an earlier postponement, the four-member personal astronaut team had actually been targeted to undock at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, to begin the journey back to Earth, but that undocking was waved-off due to unfavorable weather condition conditions for return.
NASA will provide live coverage of departure activities beginning at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, April 23, with hatch closure targeted for 6:30 p.m. Coverage will resume at 8:15 p.m. for the undocking. Groups will continue to monitor the weather at the splashdown websites prior to undocking to ensure conditions are acceptable for a safe recovery of the Ax-1 astronauts and Dragon spacecraft.
NASA and Axiom objective preparation gotten ready for the opportunity of additional time on the spaceport station for the personal astronauts, and there are adequate arrangements for all 11 crew members aboard. The Axiom Ax-1 crew is still bring out previously planned objective operations. The Ax-1 crew and the Dragon spaceship remain healthy.
The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship is imagined docked to the Harmony modules space-facing global docking adapter. Endeavour brought 4 Axiom Mission 1 astronauts, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy, to the International Space Station for numerous days of research, education, and business activities. Credit: NASA
The departure of Dragon Endeavour from the area station will clear the docking port for the arrival of Dragon Freedom and NASAs SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts. The earliest potential launch opportunity for the Crew-4 objective is 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, with extra opportunities Wednesday, April 27, and Thursday, April 28.
The Crew-4 astronauts spent last night at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida practicing the countdown to their launch inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom, the companys latest crew ship. Overnight, Crew-4 Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Robert Hines with Mission Specialists Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti, placed on their pressure matches and entered their car conducting a successful dry gown practice session. The Falcon 9 rocket, with the Freedom perched atop, stands at Launch Complex 39A.
Expedition 67 crewmates Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, who are likewise the SpaceX Crew-3 leader and pilot respectively, spent a little time on Wednesday with their upcoming departure activities. The pair, along with Kayla Barron of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA, will wait for the arrival of their Crew-4 replacements prior to going back to Earth a couple of days later on inside the Dragon Endurance lorry. The 4 astronauts had a light-duty day on Wednesday scheduling in some housecleaning tasks.
Over in the Russian segment of the station, cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev covered up their post-spacewalk activities today stowing their tools and talking about the expedition with experts on the ground. The duo started a series of spacewalks on April 18 to configure the European robotic arm for operations on the Nauka multipurpose lab module. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov began his day with communications and electronic devices maintenance prior to studying future spacecraft and robotic piloting techniques in the afternoon.
April 9, 2022: International Space Station Configuration. 6 spaceships are parked at the area station including the SpaceX Dragons Endurance and Endeavour; the Northrop Grumman Cygnus area freighter; and Russias Soyuz MS-21 crew ship and the Progress 79 and 80 resupply ships. NASA and Axiom mission planning prepared for the opportunity of extra time on the area station for the personal astronauts, and there are adequate provisions for all 11 team members aboard. Endeavour brought 4 Axiom Mission 1 astronauts, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy, to the International Space Station for several days of research, education, and commercial activities. The departure of Dragon Endeavour from the space station will clear the docking port for the arrival of Dragon Freedom and NASAs SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts.