SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission will depart the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday (October 14) and you can watch the action live.
Crew-4 Continue capsule, named freedom, will attempt to undock for a third time at 11:35 a.m. EDT (1535 GMT) on Friday, officials said during a broadcast on NASA Television on Thursday (Oct. 13). The splashdown time has not yet been released.
Friday’s attempt follows two undocking delays on Wednesday (Oct. 13) and Thursday (Oct. 14) due to weather, NASA officials said. The splashdown date is also pushed back from what it was supposed to be today (Thursday).
“Mission Controllers @NASA and @SpaceX canceled the undocking of #Crew4 at Dragon Freedom today due to weather concerns at the Florida splashdown site. Friday undocking times are currently being evaluated,” the officials said. wrote (opens in a new tab) On twitter.
When undocking happens, you can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly through the space agency (opens in a new tab).
related: Incredible photos from SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission
After splashdown off the coast of Florida, NASA and spacex plans to hold a post-splashdown news conference at a time to be announced.
That briefing will feature Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; Joel Montalbano of NASA International Space Station Program Director; and a representative from SpaceX, according to prior information from NASA.
However, neither of these times is set in stone; they depend on good weather expected in Freedom’s possible splashdown zones in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
Crew-4 launched on top of a SpaceX falcon 9 rocket on April 27 and arrived at the ISS that same day. The mission is made up of Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins.
As its name suggests, Crew-4 is the fourth contracted astronaut mission SpaceX has flown to NASA’s orbiting laboratory. It is one of two SpaceX flights currently on the ISS; Crew-5 arrived on October 1. 6 for a five month stay.
This story was updated at 3:40 pm EDT on Wednesday, October 1. 12 with news of the undocking delay and updated undocking opportunities. This story was updated again at 9:17 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 1. 13 with news of undocking and splashdown delays due to weather, and at 9:26 a.m. with the new Friday undocking time.
Mike Wall is the author of “out there (opens in a new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; Illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @migueldwall (opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @spacedot.com (opens in a new tab) or in Facebook (opens in a new tab).
